Sainz fastest in FP2 after Russell high-speed spin

Carlos Sainz topped FP2 at Formula 1’s 2024 Mexican Grand Prix, where George Russell crashed hard, Max Verstappen suffered repeat engine issues and the running was dominated by Pirelli’s tyre test.

In the extended 90-minute session, McLaren’s Lando Norris led the pack out of the pits and duly shot to a 1m19.895s using the 2025 prototype C5 Pirelli soft.

He was shuffled back by Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, before home hero Sergio Perez got ahead on a 1m19.150s using the same tyres as Norris.

Oscar Piastri, running the 2024 C4 compound, then nipped ahead on a 1m19.030s, before Sainz rounded out the opening five mins of running with 1m18.276s on the 2024 C4 tyres that are the mediums for this weekend’s main event.

A few minutes later, Sainz improved the benchmark to a 1m17.809s, just before Russell massively interrupted the session and Pirelli’s test with a big crash at Turn 9.

The Briton had gone too far over the inside kerbs of the preceding Turn 8, which caused his Mercedes to bottom out, and he spun off heading down towards Turn 9 – where he smashed sideways into the barriers and severely damaged his W15.

Russell climbed gingerly from the wreckage, with Mercedes later confirming he returned from the circuit’s medical centre without any injuries detected.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

The barriers took nearly 25 minutes to repair, after which the session resumed and Sainz – now on the 2025 C4s – went even quicker to put in a 1m17.699s.

After a short burst of performance running post-red flag, as per Pirelli’s test requirement, the drivers were then switched to the high-fuel running of 10 laps on each compound they had been given to run (the same through four runs overall at both 20kg and 100kg fuel loads) for the session.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up second based on the performance runs, 0.178s down on Sainz and ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Charles Leclerc did put in an extra flying lap while the others were being fuelled for the longer tyre tests, as he had had to wait for his Ferrari to be repaired after it was hit by Alex Albon’s Williams when being driven by Oliver Bearman in FP1.

Leclerc therefore did not get out before the red flag and when he did post-restart, he slotted into 10th on the 2025 C4s before jumping to fourth on a second attempt.

He then improved again using the 2024 C4s, but remained fourth – where he stayed to the finish, 0.188s slower than his team-mate.

Kevin Magnussen took sixth for Haas ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Perez, while Liam Lawson rounded out the top 10 for RB.

Russell’s crash meant the FP1 topper ended up down in 18th in FP2’s classification, ahead of Verstappen.

He had reported the same strange noise from his engine that had hampered his FP1 running and which Red Bull thought it had fixed between the sessions.

Further adjustments during the red flag did not improve the situation for Verstappen and he was forced to sit out the second half of the session, having also suffered a brake issue at Turn 1 during the early running.

Norris, Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Hamilton and Leclerc headed out very late on the main event’s medium tyres, as per the allocation for teams that ran a rookie driver in FP1 that was supposed to give them an extra 30 minutes on that compound, before Russell’s crash cut that time to the bone.

Norris nevertheless used his mediums to rise to fifth in the final order, while Alonso got 11th position with a pair of personal bests late in the session and Leclerc’s only real lap on the relevant mediums featured a big lock-up at Turn 1.

Albon did not make it out of the garage as Williams was not able to repair his car before the end of the session.