It was a spicy FP2 at the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix, as Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari lost power and stopped on track, while teammate Charles Leclerc set the fastest time for the second session in a row.
“Something is wrong with the power, I lost all power through Turn 13,” Hamilton reported, before his engineer told him: “We need to stop the car.” He parked trackside, bringing out a brief Virtual Safety Car, and took no further part.
Leclerc topped the session with a 1m 17.827s. Lando Norris was second, just 0.103s back, with George Russell a further 0.003s behind in third.
The session was disrupted from the start. Both Haas drivers had early problems. Esteban Ocon reported a power steering issue and came into the pits, while Oliver Bearman went off at Turn 3 and crawled back to the garage. Haas said Bearman’s problem was a software issue, and he was quickly back on track.
Audi had a more serious problem. A part was removed from Gabriel Bortoleto’s car with a clear leak before the session. “Gabriel’s car experienced a technical issue ahead of FP2,” the team said. “The team is currently investigating the nature of the issue, and the crew is working hard to get the car out on track before the end of the session.” A new floor was later brought into the garage. Bortoleto, whose car was driven by Freddie Slater in FP1, finally emerged on mediums in the final ten minutes.
Norris locked up into Turn 1 and went straight across the grass, radioing that it was “game over” for his flat-spotted mediums. He switched to softs for his flying laps and may have had to do his long run on the same compound.
Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson cause Red Flag
The red flag came out for debris at Turn 15 after Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson made contact while fighting on track. “He literally just drove into me!” Lawson said on the radio. Both continued, but bodywork was left on the circuit and Verstappen ran the rest of the session with a damaged floor. Lawson may also have been carrying damage. Not an ideal session when fighting for his F1 future.
Lance Stroll then reported a problem. “The car is broken, man. It’s not working properly,” he said.
Leclerc struggled on his first soft run but went quickest on his next attempt. By the halfway mark, just 0.311s covered the top four F1 teams: Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull.
Isack Hadjar also had a scare. “Oh, my God. Had the biggest bottoming of all time. Check the car, check the floor. It was so bad,” he said on the radio.
Russell went third on his second flying run, a tenth ahead of F1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Russell admitted yesterday that his teammate had “been at a higher level than me this year”, but Friday was a stronger day for him. Despite his floor damage, Verstappen was fifth after his first soft run, three tenths off the pace.
Oscar Piastri had a close call, sliding perilously near the barriers before catching it. He sat eighth, some way off Norris’s pace.
Ocon and his race engineer had a dispute over tyres in the garage. When told the team had swapped his planned high-fuel run to mediums, Ocon protested: “No, no, I want to do soft. Like, don’t do that to me. Come on.” He went out on softs.
Fernando Alonso was 12th, less than eight tenths off the lead and ahead of both Haas cars, an Audi and an Alpine. That’s closer to the front than Aston Martin have been recently, though Lance Stroll’s problem dulled their day.
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