By RaceScene Publisher on Friday, 05 November 2021
Category: The Checkered Flag

Verstappen dominates second free practice at the Mexican Grand Prix

Max Verstappen comfortably finished on top of the time charts in second free practice at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City. Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finished in second position and third positions at the end of the second free practice session.

The sixty-minute long second free practice session started under dry conditions with air temperatures at 21 degrees C and track temperatures at 41 degrees C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4).

It will be Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll’s turn to take on a new power unit and start the race from the back of the grid. Lewis Hamilton has escaped with a reprimand for incorrectly rejoining the track in the morning practice session.

All the drivers went out on the track as soon as the session started. Verstappen is the early leader on the medium compound tyres with a lap time of 1m18.818s.

Verstappen was flying and was the first driver to dip into the 1 minute17 seconds with a lap time of 1m17.920s.

Bottas slotted into second position on the time charts on his first run on the soft compound tyres. Verstappen then comfortably extended his lead at the top to over 0.5 seconds over the Mercedes drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell hit trouble with gearbox issues during the session.

With twenty minutes to go, the teams started their race simulations with long runs. Verstappen had a slight edge over the Mercedes drivers in long run pace.

Verstappen showed the true pace in the afternoon session with Sergio Pérez in good form in fourth position. Bottas and Hamilton have a lot of work to do to close the gap to Verstappen as they had to be content with second and third positions.

Carlos Sainz was “best of the rest” in fifth position. Pierre Gasly was in sixth position ahead of Charles Leclerc.

Yuki Tsunoda, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso rounded off the top ten positions.

The McLaren F1 team had their customary low-key Friday with Lando Norris in twelfth position splitting the Alfa Romeo Racing drivers. Ricciardo’s session was curtailed due to reliability issues.

The session ended with Red Bull Racing on top with a clear edge over Mercedes at the end of Friday.

2021 Mexican GP FP2 Results:

PosNoDriverNat.TeamsTimeGapLaps
133Max VerstappenNEDRed Bull Racing1:17.30128
277Valtteri BottasFINMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team1:17.725+0.424s31
344Lewis HamiltonGBRMercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team1:17.810+0.509s26
411Sergio PerezMEXRed Bull Racing1:17.871+0.570s26
555Carlos SainzESPScuderia Ferrari1:18.318+1.017s29
610Pierre GaslyFRAScuderia AlphaTauri Honda1:18.429+1.128s29
716Charles LeclercMONScuderia Ferrari1:18.605+1.304s28
822Yuki TsunodaJAPScuderia AlphaTauri Honda1:18.644+1.343s31
95Sebastian VettelGERAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team1:18.681+1.380s32
1014Fernando AlonsoESPAlpine F1 Team1:18.732+1.431s27
117Kimi RäikkönenFINAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN1:18.841+1.540s25
124Lando NorrisGBRMcLaren F1 Team1:18.979+1.678s27
1399Antonio GiovinazziITAAlfa Romeo Racing ORLEN1:19.227+1.926s31
1431Esteban OconFRAAlpine F1 Team1:19.431+2.130s37
153Daniel RicciardoAUSMcLaren F1 Team1:19.521+2.220s7
1647Mick SchumacherGERUralkali Haas F1 Team1:19.620+2.319s30
1718Lance StrollCANAston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team1:19.730+2.429s36
186Nicholas LatifiCANWilliams Racing1:20.820+3.519s17
199Nikita MazepinRAFUralkali Haas F1 Team1:21.581+4.280s28
2063George RussellGBRWilliams Racing2
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