F1 News: Sainz tops Mexico City FP2 dedicated to 2025 tire testing

In a session red-flagged for a big crash by Mercedes driver George Russell, and primarily dedicated to testing 2025 Pirelli tires, Carlos Sainz Jr. turned the fastest lap of 1m17.699s in his #55 Ferrari around the 2.674-mile Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Before a Friday crowd of 107,865 fans, the Ferrari team driver was very consistent in his 34 laps and became the man to beat in a session marked by a red flag and tire tests as part of Pirelli’s development for the 2025 season.

The second free practice session lasted 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than usual, with the last half hour devoted to Pirelli tire testing as the manufacturer continues developing the compounds that will be used next season.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was 2nd fasted, 0.178s behind Sainz Jr. in a session that has no relevance to tomorrow and Sunday’s true pace leaders.

Yuki Tsunoda was again a big surprise, just 0.001s slower than Piastri in his Visa Cash App RB. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed that Yuki Tsunoda will drive the team’s RB20 in Formula 1’s end-of-season Abu Dhabi test. Honda is pushing for Tsunoda to get a seat alongside Max Verstappen next year should they decide Sergio Perez is too much of a liability.

“Yuki is a member of the junior team, and it’s something that we have discussed with Honda,” Horner explained.

“He will test the car at the tire test following the conclusion of the season, and it’s something that has been agreed for quite some time.

“It will again be good to give him a run, and get the opportunity to work with Red Bull Racing engineers and see how he performs in a Red Bull Racing car.”

The winner in Austin last weekend, Charles Leclerc, was 4th quick, 0.188s behind Sainz in his #16 Ferrari.

Lando Norris rounded out the top-5 in the #4 McLaren, 0.249s behind Sainz.

Magnussen, Hamilton, Bottas, Perez and Lawson rounded out the top-10.

Max Verstappen’s Honda-powered car had some sort of engine issue, and that limited him to just four slow laps and left the Dutchman without a time on the board.

Problems for Red Bull, but they have tonight to try and diagnose and resolve the issue before FP3 tomorrow.

Alex Albon was the other driver to miss out there, the damage from his FP1 crash too big to fix in time to get him out, even in an elongated session.

So, he will be desperately trying to make up for that time lost tomorrow in FP3, and will be relying on his teammate’s data tonight to try and understand how his car might handle here this weekend.

With just 13 minutes left in the session, George Russell caught the curb in the “esses” section, lost control of his Mercedes, and crashed into the barrier to bring out a red flag. The British driver was able to get out of the car on his own and was taken to the track’s medical center for a routine check-up.

After a 23-minute pause while the barriers were being repaired, the drivers got back the track to continue looking for the optimum setup.

Mercedes have confirmed that Russell, who topped FP1, has been released from the Medical Centre, that is all they have said. His crash was so hard the team will have to replace his tub overnight.

Russell and Sainz have topped the two sessions, but Verstappen has run into issues and Norris is playing catch up after sitting out FP1, as does Leclerc.

2024 Mexico City GP Practice 2 Results