F1 Mexico GP: Max Verstappen tops FP2 with upgraded Red Bull...

Max Verstappen was fastest in second practice for the Mexico Grand Prix, driving Red Bull’s updated Formula 1 challenger, with championship leader Oscar Piastri down in 12th.

After a rather unrepresentative opening session on a ‘green’ track – which nine race drivers, including Verstappen, missed out on – everyone swiftly took to the track to gather crucial data for both qualifying and the race.

Verstappen in particular made the most of the second session to trial the RB21’s new floor, with flow-vis paint for data collection, which is especially unusual at this stage of the season.

FP1 pacesetter Leclerc was again quickest early on with mediums, lapping in 1m18.669s before improving his marker down to 1m18.353s, which made him about three tenths quicker than anyone else at that stage.

Leclerc then set the pace on softs with a 1m17.545s, but Verstappen outpaced him by 0.153s, setting a 1m17.392s reference.

The Red Bull driver then embarked on a 12-lap run on 12-lap-old mediums, near the end of which he was upset about his machinery’s handling. “It’s terrible, I have no grip, it’s like driving on ice,” he lamented on the radio.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images

Andrea Kimi Antonelli took third position behind Verstappen and Leclerc despite a technical issue which required him to return to the garage early in the session.

Fourth-placed Lando Norris also experienced “a lot of misfires”, which wasn’t ideal as the title contender ceded his car to local hero Pato O’Ward in FP1, though he still covered 31 laps of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth, leading George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda, Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, with just 0.4s separating P2 from P10.

It was another tough day for Alpine, as Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly finished 18th and 20th, 1.3s down on Verstappen and four tenths away from the next slowest team – Sauber.

The blue-and-pink cars sandwiched Williams’ Alex Albon, who brushed the wall when exiting the last corner on a hot lap but still got to complete the session.