Ferrari and Red Bull drew battle lines as Sebastian Vettel led Max Verstappen in second practice at the Mexican Grand Prix.
A disrupted morning session had meant the pecking order was still largely unknown heading into the afternoon at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
But after heading into this weekend as favourites, the Italian team started to live up to that billing with only a defiant Dutchman trying to stop them.
Vettel would set the pace right from the get-go as teams tried to gain a feel on the medium tyre. It wasn’t all plain-sailing though as teammate Charles Leclerc survived a spin under braking into the tricky Turn 1.
His minor moment was trumped by Alex Albon though, as the Thai driver lost the rear on entry into Turn 7 and slid into the barrier causing a second red flag of the day.
Not long after the session resumed, Valtteri Bottas also went for a spin entering the stadium in the Mercedes on the hard tyre which was giving up very little grip on the track surface.
Verstappen would hint at Red Bull’s pace by matching Vettel’s time on the medium, while Gasly jumped upto an impressive third in the Toro Rosso with Lewis Hamilton fourth.
Soon, Ferrari would get the qualifying runs underway with Leclerc lowering the benchmark by almost nine-tenths on the soft tyre.
Vettel would soon respond though with a 1m16.607s, to sit almost half a second clear of his teammate.
Just as it appeared the Scuderia were in a class of their own though, Verstappen appeared again to split the two scarlet cars in second, with the one-tenth gap to Vettel an encouraging sign for Red Bull.
On the contrary, Mercedes struggled to get the tyres to work and lost half a second in the first sector alone with Bottas finishing six-tenths off the pace in fourth.
The Finn though was still a third of a second clear of Hamilton in fifth, as the Briton struggled with traffic and a final sector error on his flying lap.
In the midfield, a battle between McLaren and Toro Rosso is brewing with Daniil Kvyat sixth for the junior Red Bull team.
Teammate Pierre Gasly sat seventh, with his best time coming on the medium compound after being blocked by Kimi Raikkonen on his first lap and then ran wide at Turn 12 on his second attempt using the red-striped softs.
Likewise, Carlos Sainz also set his best time on the yellow-striped tyre in eighth, while Lando Norris had to wait for his second timed lap to take 10th, meaning the soft rubber was far from fresh.
Nico Hulkenberg gave Renault some optimism in ninth, but the performance of Toro Rosso will be a concern as they try to undo the damage of the Japan exclusion.
Racing Point made solid progress after a slow morning with Lance Stroll 0.004s ahead of teammate Sergio Perez in P11 and P12 respectively.
Daniel Ricciardo’s usual steady practice pace continued in 13th, albeit the Australian was only a tenth slower than Hulkenberg despite being four places behind.
Alfa Romeo and Haas rounded out the midfield ahead of the two Williams’, as George Russell led teammate Robert Kubica by two-tenths of a second.
After the qualifying runs came the race simulation and the traditional issue of graining was all too apparent as drivers struggled to get any kind of consistency from the compounds.
A big spin for Leclerc in the final moments highlighted how tricky it was for the drivers and the odd spot of rain was also a reminder of the threat which remains on Saturday and Sunday.
The weather though appears to be the only thing that can stop Ferrari as they go in search of a sixth straight pole on Saturday.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
