Formula 1 2022 results – Mexican Grand Prix: FP2

Jamie Woodhouse
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, follows an Alpine. Mexico, October 2022.

Daniel Ricciardo in the McLaren follows an Alpine on the track. Mexico, October 2022.

George Russell used his allotted time on the soft tyre to top FP2 in Mexico, a session geared towards testing the Pirelli 2023 prototypes.

Russell was one of five drivers who sat out FP1 to make way for a ‘rookie driver’, who all therefore had 45 minutes available to them in the 90-minute FP2 session to run the 2022 tyres.

It was Russell then who won that battle on the softs, though it was not a session which passed without drama, Charles Leclerc binning his Ferrari into the barriers to trigger the red flags.

As was the case in Austin, FP2 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez focused on testing the Pirelli 2023 prototype tyres, the session running for 90 minutes rather than the standard 60.

Max Verstappen headed a flock of drivers to dive into the action from the start, though Russell and Esteban Ocon began on the current Pirelli rubber having sat out for Nyck de Vries and Jack Doohan respectively in FP1.

Russell and Ocon, along with Yuki Tsunoda, Alex Albon and Kevin Magnussen were permitted run time on the 2022 tyres as a result of them all giving up their seats in FP1. Each driver would need to use 45 minutes of their session though for the Pirelli prototypes.

As the session passed the half-hour mark and all seemed calm out there, Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari at Turn 8, sliding into the barrier and making a mess of the rear end of that F1-75. He fortunately walked away fine as the session was red flagged.

The session would resume with 38 minutes remaining on the clock, Russell, Tsunoda and Ocon the top three after their stints on the soft rubber.

And that remained the top three as the chequered flag brought an end to FP2, that happening a few minutes early as a hydraulic failure forced Zhou Guanyu to bring his Alfa Romeo to a halt.

You can read the full FP2 report here.

FP2 times

1 George RUSSELL Mercedes1:19.970
2 Yuki TSUNODA AlphaTauri+0.828
3 Esteban OCON Alpine+1.207
4 Lewis HAMILTON Mercedes+1.539
5 Sergio PEREZ Red Bull Racing+1.609
6 Max VERSTAPPEN Red Bull Racing+1.618
7 Charles LECLERC Ferrari+1.648
8 Carlos SAINZ Ferrari+1.723
9 Valtteri BOTTAS Alfa Romeo+2.023
10 Pierre GASLY AlphaTauri+2.134
11 Fernando ALONSO Alpine+2.367
12 Sebastian VETTEL Aston Martin+2.401
13 Alexander ALBON Williams+2.477
14 Lando NORRIS McLaren+2.768
15 Daniel RICCIARDO McLaren+2.793
16 Lance STROLL Aston Martin+2.870
17 Mick SCHUMACHER Haas F1 Team+2.909
18 Kevin MAGNUSSEN Haas F1 Team+3.346
19 Nicholas LATIFI Williams+3.350
20 Guanyu ZHOU Alfa Romeo+3.399