Ricciardo leads close second practice session

2017 Mexican Grand Prix second practice

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Daniel Ricciardo led a close second practice session in Mexico with six drivers separated by half a second at the top of the times.

His team mate Max Verstappen was third-quickest but stopped running quarter of an hour before the end of the session with a power unit problem. The two Red Bulls were separated by theworld championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who had a high-speed spin at the exit of turn 11 early in the session.

Mexican Grand Prix practice in pictures
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was slower than the two Ferraris. Sebastian Vettel had an eventful session on his way to the fourth-quickest time, having to pit at one point after his fire extinguisher discharged its contents. He also had a spin at turn 11.

Three other drivers set times within a second of Ricciardo’s best. Fernando Alonso was ‘best of the rest’, seven-tenths of a second down on Ricciardo. Next were Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Ocon completed the top ten. His team finished repairs to his chassis, which had been damaged by Alfonso Celis in first practice, in time for the second session to start, though he did report some problems with his car pulling to one side on his first run.

Romain Grosjean also sat out the first session but he was unable to make up for lost time in the afternoon. A left-rear tyre failed at the exit of the Mansell corner on his second run, pitching him into a spin. The tyre then failed again as he drove down the pit straight, causing considerable damage to his VF-17. That ended his session and briefly caused practice to be red-flagged so the debris could be collection.

It went little better for Pierre Gasly, who did his first ever lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after missing first practice so Sean Gelael could drive. He then only managed ten laps before having to stop.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
13Daniel RicciardoRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.80126
244Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’17.9320.13140
333Max VerstappenRed Bull-TAG Heuer1’17.9640.16317
45Sebastian VettelFerrari1’18.0510.25035
57Kimi RaikkonenFerrari1’18.1420.34140
677Valtteri BottasMercedes1’18.2990.49843
714Fernando AlonsoMcLaren-Honda1’18.5080.70726
811Sergio PerezForce India-Mercedes1’18.7280.92741
927Nico HulkenbergRenault1’18.7750.97419
1031Esteban OconForce India-Mercedes1’18.8221.02142
1155Carlos Sainz JnrRenault1’19.0601.25930
1219Felipe MassaWilliams-Mercedes1’19.2061.40537
1328Brendon HartleyToro Rosso-Renault1’19.4231.62240
1418Lance StrollWilliams-Mercedes1’19.5241.72342
152Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Honda1’19.8442.04332
1694Pascal WehrleinSauber-Ferrari1’20.3062.50538
1720Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1’20.3182.51735
189Marcus EricssonSauber-Ferrari1’20.3622.56138
1910Pierre GaslyToro Rosso-Renault1’21.7453.94410
208Romain GrosjeanHaas-Ferrari1’25.5267.7253

Second practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.801

+0.131 Lewis Hamilton – 1’17.932

+0.163 Max Verstappen – 1’17.964

+0.250 Sebastian Vettel – 1’18.051

+0.341 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’18.142

+0.498 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.299

+0.707 Fernando Alonso – 1’18.508

+0.927 Sergio Perez – 1’18.728

+0.974 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.775

+1.021 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.822

+1.259 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’19.060

+1.405 Felipe Massa – 1’19.206

+1.622 Brendon Hartley – 1’19.423

+1.723 Lance Stroll – 1’19.524

+2.043 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’19.844

+2.505 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’20.306

+2.517 Kevin Magnussen – 1’20.318

+2.561 Marcus Ericsson – 1’20.362

+3.944 Pierre Gasly – 1’21.745

+7.725 Romain Grosjean – 1’25.526

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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13 comments on “Ricciardo leads close second practice session”

  1. Only an improvement of 0.023 seconds on the fastest FP1 time.

  2. So did Renault quietly sneak in a higher oil burning power unit like Ferrari and Mercedes? They limited running on the Red Bull bc of high oil burn. If so this is good for Renault but maybe they pushed it to far

    1. They were using the old engines who doesn’t have that feature. I think it’s all aero which is really good here.

  3. Did the commentators say that RIC was also fastest on the Soft tyre?

  4. What is Fernando doing there?

    1. He found his mojo there ;)

    2. I know – it’s really too bad he will have to serve out an entire grid’s worth of penalties.

    3. New front wing is delivering for sure! A shame he’s got penalties again.

  5. Guybrush Threepwood
    27th October 2017, 22:55

    Ricciardo is using the old spec engine, so an additional 0.2 seconds slower than the one Verstappen is using.

    1. Nope, not in FP. Verstappen in an old unit. Nice try though.

    2. Verstappen was also testing new 2018 parts in FP1 and then spent FP2 on setup. Unfortunately he did not get to the end of his program due to engine failure.

  6. Seems like RBR can go for a win

  7. They were using the old engines who doesn’t have that feature. I think it’s all aero which is really good here.

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