Mexico, FP2: Russell tops extended FP2 as Leclerc crashes

Mercedes’ George Russell set the quickest lap of the second practice session for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc brought out the red flags after crashing in a session extended to 90 minutes to allow for testing of Pirelli’s 2023 tyres.

The usual 60-minute session was extended to 90 minutes to provide for running on the softer end of Pirelli’s range of prototype tyres for next year, after the harder compounds were run in Austin last weekend.

However, drivers who give up their seats to rookie drivers in FP1 were allowed to run 2022 tyre compounds during FP2 and Russell, whose Mercedes was driven Nyck de Vries in the early session, topped FP2 using 2022 soft tyres thanks to a time of 1m19.970. That put him finishing eight-tenths of a second clear of second-placed Tsunoda whose place at AlphaTauri in FP1 was taken by Liam Lawson while Esteban Ocon who had been replaced at Alpine by Jack Doohan, was a further four-tenths of a second behind in third for Alpine.

Elsewhere the focus was on the prototype tyres and the fate gathering runs specified by Pirelli. However, running was interrupted 33 minutes into the session when Leclerc lost the rear of his Ferrari in Turn 7 and slid rearwards into the barriers.

The red flags were shown and a 20-minute halt ensure as the barriers were repaired. Following the resumption drivers returned to tyre testing for the rest of the session.

Though the times were largely meaningless, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in the session, though he was 1.5 seconds down on team-mate Russell.

Sergio Pérez was fifth, just seven-hundredths behind Hamilton, with the Mexican’s Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in sixth place.

Leclerc’s best time from early in the session was good enough to earn him seventh place ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

At the end of the session Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu brought out the red flags after reporting a hydraulic failure, He was told to pull over and stop his car in the Foro Sol stadium section and the session was ended with a little under two minutes left on the clock.