Verstappen finds clear air out in front in Mexico FP2

Max Verstappen put Red Bull firmly on top in second practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with nearly a half second margin over Mercedes rivals Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

Sergio Perez was close behind, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly proving to be the best of the rest by the time the chequered flag came out.

George Russell's day barely got underway before gearbox issues forced him to park back in the Williams garage without setting a time, leaving the Briton back in his everyday wear kicking his heels on the pit wall. McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo also suffered similar gearbox issues.

• 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix - Free Practice 2 results

It was back to work in the rarefied atmosphere of Mexico City, and Kimi Raikkonen was once again first to get back out on track - beginning on mediums - when the lights went green at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez after lunch, but the Alfa Romeo driver was soon joined by most of the field leading to considerable congestion at the stadium section as everyone jockeyed for position to start their initial runs.

It was no surprise to see Red Bull's Max Verstappen make an early claim for the top spot with a time of 1:18.818s, the track much less dusty now than it had been earlier in the day albeit with the wind having picked up. AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda was also looking quick as he pipped Sergio Perez to second, followed by Lando Norris on soft tyres ahead of Charles Leclerc. However it was very early days and Verstappen was immediately quicker still on a time of 1:18.206s, which was the best time of the day so far - beating morning pace setter Valtteri Bottas's FP1 time. Perez also went quicker to go second, taking clear not to repeat his morning error of spinning into the barrier.

Having been blocked on his first lap, Lewis Hamilton finally notched up a time good enough to move into third behind the two Red Bulls, only to have the lap in question deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 11. Having then locked up and run wide at turn 1 on his next attempt, Hamilton declared that set of tyres 'done' meaning a return to pit lane was required after just seven laps. It left him at the bottom of the timesheets, along with George Russell who had suffered terminal gearbox issues on his Williams that meant his afternoon was over before it had started as he changed back to jeans and T-shirt to watch the rest of the session from the pit wall. McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo wasn't too far behind him after also suffering gearbox issues in FP2.

With Verstappen further trimming his time to 1:17.920s, a switch to soft tyres enabled Tsunoda to retake second place ahead of the similarly-shod Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, pushing Perez down to fourth. That soon became fifth when Bottas also moved on to the red-walled compound and sprang into second place, pegging back the gap to Verstappen to just 0.112s.

More drivers emerged on soft tyres, with Hamilton finally making an impression on the timing screens to go second just as Verstappen moved the goalposts forward by another half a second to 1:17.301s with his latest run. Perez was also better on the soft compound and was back in fourth ahead of the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly, with Leclerc sixth from Tsunoda, Vettel and Fernando Alonso, and Lando Norris rounding out the top ten.

Even though his tyres were already 11 laps old, Bottas was still able to coax more speed out of them to move ahead of his Mercedes team mate for second place, as Hamilton headed back to pit lane to move on to long distance race simulations. Others continued to plug away on the soft tyres for a spell, trying out how they lasted on heavier fuel loads, with Carlos Sainz using the opportunity to move into the top ten ahead of Gasly who was already on to running the hard compound.

With no further improvements in the times, the only noteworthy incident in the remaining 15 minutes saw Nicholas Latifi locking up in turn 16 and doing well to brake in time and leave the Williams parked sideways in the run-off rather than hitting the barrier. Non-plused, the Canadian radioed "I'm okay" and simply resumed his long run without feeling the need for a check-up on pit lane.

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