The extended 90-minute session saw the riders focus on using Pirelli’s prototype rubber for next year, building on the findings from Austin a week ago with a softer selection of compounds.
Drivers had to run identical programs throughout the session, comprising two five-lap races before moving on to two eight-lap races.
Russell was one of five drivers allowed to use the 2022 tire compounds during EP2 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday afternoon, having missed EP1 for Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries.
Russell was joined by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alex Albon to run the 2022 tires for the first half of the session.
Russell set the fastest lap time of 1m19.970s on the soft tyre, finishing eight tenths of a second ahead of Tsunoda in second place. Ocon was four-tenths of a second clearer of third for Alpine, with the trio finishing their first runs on the mediums.
With the rest of the field focused on 2023 Pirelli tyres, the race was halted 33 minutes into the session when a red flag was raised after Leclerc crashed heavily at Turn 7, losing the lead. back of his Ferrari F1-75 car during the turn.
Leclerc had completed three laps of his third stint with the prototype Pirelli tyre, but hit the barrier at the entrance to the esses with the rear of his car, causing damage to the rear wing and left corner. The Monegasque quickly reported on the radio that he was fine, but said: “The car is not going.”
The damage to the barrier meant it took 20 minutes before racing could resume, at which time all the drivers concentrated on the Pirelli prototypes for the remainder of the session.
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap time on the prototype tire on his third stint after stopping halfway through his second run. The seven-time world champion finished 1.5 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate Russell at the front of the field.
He narrowly beat Red Bull driver and home favorite Sergio Perez, who was just seven hundredths of a second behind after reporting difficulties with the rear lockout earlier in the session. Perez was also seen trying a number of different lines at Turn 1 after noticing a few rebounds at the end of the straight.
Perez’s Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen followed in sixth place, finishing the session less than a tenth off Hamilton’s best effort for the 2021 prototype title.
Leclerc’s lap time on his second stint on the prototype tires was still good enough for seventh ahead of his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, while Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
Fernando Alonso finished FP2 in 11th place for Alpine ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, while Albon could only finish 13th after completing a short run on 2022 softs before switching to prototype tires for Williams.
McLaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished the session 14th and 15th respectively ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin, followed by Mick Schumacher in 17th for Haas.
Kevin Magnussen was limited to 20 laps during the session after losing the first half hour due to an engine change by his Haas team following the FP1 stop when Pietro Fittipaldi was in the car.
Magnussen will take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race due to the engine change, which was outside of his allowance for the season.
Due to lost time, Haas opted not to run it on 2022 tires and instead focused on running the Pirelli prototype, leaving it 18th overall only ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu .
Zhou pulled out a red flag with less than two minutes remaining on the clock in FP2 after reporting a hydraulic failure, pulling to the side of the track at Foro Sol after being ordered to stop his car.
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