Mexican GP: Verstappen leads 2nd free practice; Bortoleto is 15th

Max had been absent from the track in FP1, giving his car to development driver Arvid Lindblad; Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman, Lewis Hamilton, and Lance Stroll also returned after giving their seats to young drivers. Bortoleto was in eighth at the start of the session; with medium tires, he completed another quick lap to claim sixth place. Back in the pits after the first third of the practice, the Brazilian had his time beaten by his rivals. Switching to soft compounds in the final part of the session, the Sauber rookie set the 11th time and ultimately finished 15th on the timesheet. Leclerc opened the session as the fastest, on medium tires. He continued to lead after Norris and Hamilton’s attempts and, after 15 minutes, extended his lead to 0.3s over the pair with another quick lap. The McLaren driver even complained of ignition issues but continued without complaints. Midway through the session, the Ferrari driver switched to soft tires; still in the lead, he remained in that position with a 0.6s gap over the McLarens. Russell was within 0.2s of beating the Monegasque’s time, but it was Verstappen who managed to snatch the lead: also on the red-banded compounds, the Dutchman clocked a 1m17s392 on his lap – with a 0.1s advantage.