Mexican GP 2023
OCTOBER 27, 2023
Friday Report - Max continues to lead
© Red Bull
By Peter Habicht
Max Verstappen was fastest again in today’s second free practice for Red Bull with a 1:18.686s lap in mostly dry conditions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. McLaren’s Lando Norris was 0.12s behind the pace, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Hometown favorite Sergio Perez was fifth fastest, and again 0.3s behind his teammate Verstappen. Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri was next quickest followed by Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Oscar Piastri’s McLaren and George Russell’s Mercedes.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ran tenth fastest, followed by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou, Williams’ Alex Albon and Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, who is running in his 200th race as a Formula 1 driver this weekend. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Albon Teammate Logan Sargeant were 17th and 18th fastest ahead of the Aston’s Lance Stroll, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Stroll’s teammate, Fernando Alonso.
Both Astons stopped short of a full program due to a wheel nut issue on Stroll’s car and a spin from Alonso that damaged his set of soft tires.
Light rain fell in the opening ten minutes and again in the final 20 minutes of the session but didn’t appear to limit teams’ abilities to gather run data. Hard, medium and soft compounds used this weekend are one step softer than last year’s selection and are expected to open up opportunities around a two stop race strategy on Sunday.
Free practice three begins at 11:30a tomorrow.