Daniel Ricciardo backed suggestions of a big battle for the victory at the Mexican Grand Prix after moving Red Bull to the top of the timesheets in Practice 2, beating the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton by a tenth of a second
The Australian posted a 1m17.801s, faster than Valtteri Bottas best on the same tyres in cooler morning conditions, to lead the champion-in-waiting in what was an eventful afternoon in Mexico City.
The action began with an early red flag caused by Romain Grosjean in the Haas. The Frenchman lost the rear of his car after being wide coming onto the main straight, he would get going again but the flat-spotted right-rear tyre would fail as he got back up to speed sending rubber and carbon fibre flying.
The damage to the floor of his car would also be substantial and left him unable to run for the remainder of the session.
Cars dropping out early would be a theme as Max Verstappen, who finished third overall in the second Red Bull, had his day ended prematurely following the failure of an engine that had reached its limit on mileage.
In his first session back since Japan, Pierre Gasly, who is already set for a grid drop, also had to park up due to a Renault engine failure.
On the track, the drama would continue as, once the Haas was cleared, Hamilton produced a rare error losing his car at Turn 9. Lucky to avoid contact with the wall, the incident could hamper Mercedes’ race preparations as he and teammate Valtteri Bottas had started tyre comparisons between the Supersoft and Soft during a long run.
On a weekend where Sebastian Vettel must win to keep his slim title hopes alive, he had his own problems at Ferrari after a fire extinguisher failure under his seat caused the foam to leak into seat causing a burning sensation in his overalls.
A quick change of clothing and all was OK, but the pace appears doesn’t appear to be there for now with the 30-year-old only fourth fastest overall ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
After leading in the morning, Bottas would drop back to sixth in Practice 2 in the other Mercedes, some four-tenths slower than he managed earlier in the day.
Despite a grid penalty, Fernando Alonso opted to do a second low-fuel qualifying-style run which would see the Spaniard leapfrog Sergio Perez into seventh. Interestingly, almost all of the gap between himself and Ricciardo would come in Sector 1, which is dominated by straights.
Nico Hulkenberg put almost three-tenths between himself and Renault teammate Carlos Sainz as the German was 9th and the Spaniard 11th. In between, the ever-present Esteban Ocon in the second Force India making his first appearance after missing the morning.
Williams has some work to do with Felipe Massa 12th and Lance Stroll 14th, the Canadian would also lightly hit the wall at Turn 5 following one of many slow-speed spins in the session, as grip remained poor, though little damage was done.
Brendon Hartley split the two Grove cars in 13th, with the New Zealander looked to make up for missed time in Practice 1 following engine mapping problems.
Stoffel Vandoorne, having switched to a Spec 3.7 Honda engine would suffer a loose wheel exiting the garage but noticed in time to stop in the pit-lane, get it secured and eventually finish 15th.
Pascal Wehrlein would lead the Sauber charge in 16th, beating the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, as the American team’s concerns before the weekend prove well-founded.
