As happened in the second practice session last weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Free Practice 2 of the Mexican Grand Prix once again featured Pirelli’s tests with the experimental tires that the single-seaters will use in 2023.
In the same way as in the United States, only the drivers who did not get into their cars in FP1 were able to fit the Italian supplier’s compounds for this 2022 during the first half hour of FP2, before also testing the 2023 prototypes in the extra 30 minutes of session.
Finally, the first three drivers set their times on the soft tire of this course, with George Russell recording the best time, a 1:19.970 that left him almost a second ahead of his closest rival, Yuki Tsunoda, with Esteban Ocon third at 1,207 seconds.
Four and first of the drivers who rode exclusively with the 2023 tires was Lewis Hamilton, with a best time of 1:21.509, just ahead of Sergio Pérez, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc (who suffered a serious accident) and Carlos Sainz.
Valtter Bottas and Pierre Gasly closed the top ten positions at the end of the day on Friday at the Mexican GP, ahead of a Fernando Alonso who stayed at the gates of the TOP 10.
As Pirelli did not inform the spectators or the drivers themselves about what type of compound they were testing, the data collected during this FP2 session was of little use for the rest of the weekend.
Results of the Free Practice 2 (FP2) of the 2022 Mexican GP of F1
| Cla | Pilot | laps | Weather | Difference | Interval | Km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  George Russell |
 |
32 | 1’19.970 | 193.752 | ||
| 2 |  Yuki Tsunoda |
 |
30 | 1’20.798 | 0.828 | 0.828 | 191.767 |
| 3 |  Esteban Ocon |
 |
31 | 1’21.177 | 1.207 | 0.379 | 190.871 |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton |
 |
32 | 1’21.509 | 1.539 | 0.332 | 190.094 |
| 5 |  Sergio Perez |
 |
3. 4 | 1,21,579 | 1,609 | 0.070 | 189,931 |
| 6 |  Max Verstappen |
 |
34 | 1’21.588 | 1.618 | 0.009 | 189.910 |
| 7 |  Charles Leclerc |
 |
13 | 1’21.618 | 1.648 | 0.030 | 189.840 |
| 8 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |
 |
3. 4 | 1’21,693 | 1,723 | 0.075 | 189,666 |
| 9 |  Valtteri Bottas |
 |
36 | 1’21.993 | 2.023 | 0.300 | 188.972 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly |
 |
36 | 1’22.104 | 2.134 | 0.111 | 188,716 |
| see results | |||||||
Foto de: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
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Summary of the second practices (Free 2) of the 2022 Mexican GP of F1
As happened in the United States Grand Prix, the second free practice session in Mexican territory lasted half an hour, that is, instead of 60 minutes, it would last 90 minutes, due to Pirelli’s tests with the tires for the 2023 season.
Max Verstappen and Guanyu Zhou were the first drivers to hit the asphalt at the Autodromo de los Hermanos Rodríguez, but due to these aforementioned tests, there was no information regarding the compound that each of the drivers was riding, in fact, not even the drivers themselves. teams and drivers have that information.
Max Verstappen quickly moved into the lead on the Italian brand’s experimental tire with a time of 1:22.372, but a few minutes later he was overtaken first by Pierre Gasly and a little later by Carlos Sainz, who posted a 1:21.943.
The only drivers who could ride the usual compounds were those who had been absent during FP1, giving up their seats to rookie drivers, such as George Russell, Kevin Magnussen, Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon.
Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc were placed in fourth and fifth position respectively, ahead of the two Mercedes and the two Alpine drivers, all separated by less than a second.
With this year’s medium tyres, George Russell improved Sainz’s time and climbed to first position with a 1:21.742 close to the first quarter of an hour of Free Practice 2 at the Mexican GP.
Tsunoda, also with means, improved and with a 1:21.831 was placed in second position, behind the young British driver from Mercedes, before the Dutch Red Bull driver, with the experimental compound, dropped to 1:21.588 to position himself first.
After Checo Pérez improved all those times, Russell lowered his mark again on the softs and was the first rider to descend the 1:20 barrier, setting a 1:19.970. Tsunoda, also on the 2022 softs, was 0.828 seconds behind the Mercede driver, but that still earned him second place.
Arriving at the first half hour of FP1, Esteban Ocon, also on softs, was positioned in third place 1.2s behind Russell, beating the experimental compounds, which at that time were led by Lewis Hamilton, 1.539 seconds off the time of Russell.
Fully into the second half hour of the session, Charles Leclerc starred in the third red flag of the day and the first of FP2 by losing control of Ferrari and hitting directly against the protections of the track, thus saying goodbye to the rest of the day.
Video: watch Leclerc’s accident in Free Practice 2 of the 2022 F1 Mexican GP
After a long 10 or 15 minutes of red flag, the action returned to the track with just over 35 minutes still on the clock and, as until the moment of the accident, the Pirelli prototypes for the next season were once again the great protagonists. on the asphalt.
In the minutes following Leclerc’s accident, practically no driver painted their personal sectors green in a time table that had completely stabilized, with Russel in first position, followed by Tsunoda and Ocon, three drivers who in the last half hour Free Practice 2 also had to forget about the 2022 compounds and set up the experimental ones.
In the last 20 minutes of FP2 no one improved their times and everyone rode normally, without apparent problems, until the last minute, when Guanyu Zhou raised a red flag when his Alfa Romeo stopped in the area of the stadium or Foro Sol, where is the vast majority of fans. So Russell ended up leading a really unrepresentative FP2 with a 1m19.970s ahead of Tsunoda and Ocon.
