Red Bull might have wrapped up the drivers and constructors championships already, but they're no less determined to claim victory again this weekend in the Mexican GP, the home race for Sergio Perez.
Perez was third quickest in Friday's first practice, just behind the two Ferraris and ahead of his team mate Max Verstappen who went for a spin during the session.
Perez was fifth in the later session with Verstappen sixth, but the times meant little as they were set as part of a 90-minute tyre test of 2023 compounds run on behalf of Pirelli.
It means no one can be sure of how they stand heading into Saturday's final practice and qualifying sessions, but Perez is expecting it to be very tight at the top for Red Bull with their Ferrari and Mercedes rivals.
"It was a tricky, tricky day as usual in Mexico with the altitude," said Perez, whose every appearance on track today had been greeted with roars of approval from the home fans.
"Everything is floating around so [it was] fairly easy to make mistakes in these conditions,” he commented. "Obviously FP2 was mainly for Pirelli, but FP1 we got a good base, and we seem to be there.
"We got up to speed fairly quickly so should be straightforward tomorrow hopefully, but you can always expect different things," he told the media in the paddock after the end of today's track activity.
“Ferrari seem to be strong, also Mercedes, so it’s going to be a tough battle tomorrow,” he warned.
Meanwhile Verstappen was shrugging off his FP1 spin and looking ahead to the rest of the weekend.
"[I] just had a moment," he sid of his rare mishap. "As soon as I came a bit off line it was like ice. I was just drifting left, drifting right, and at one point when it goes, you just have to hold the brakes and it just hits the wall.”
It meant that Verstappen only had a single run on the soft compound tyres, leaving him a lot of work to do over the rest of the weekend.
"On the soft everything was alright, but we only had one run on them," he confirmed. "Then in FP2 we had to do the tyre testing again.
"That makes it a little bit more difficult and a bit more unknown again like last weekend, for everyone. But the harder compounds are a bit more tricky,” he added.
Both drivers have extra motivation this weekend. For Perez it's to record his first home win in Formula 1, having narrowly missed out last year when he crossed the line in third place.
And Verstappen it's a place in the record books that's driving him on. He's already won 13 races in 2022, tying him for the record of number of wins in a single season with Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013).
One more and he will claim the record for himself. Even if that doesn't happen this weekend at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Verstappen will still have two more chances to pull it off in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
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