Sebastian Vettel topped the second free practice session in Mexico with a time of 1m19.790s, beating both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after the qualifying simulations. Whether that’s a true representation of qualifying or whether Mercedes had their engines turned down, though, is a different matter.
Everybody but the two Force India drivers set their qualifying simulation runs on the super soft tyres, which needed a lot of work on the cool track. The softest compound brought to Mexico needed an extra warm up lap to turn the tyres on. Grip was lacking on the track, with the relatively new tarmac still evolving, leading to lots of slips and small mistakes early in the session.
Ferrari were able to hook their laps up when they put the super soft tyres on, an almost perfect lap putting Vettel at the top of the timing sheets. Mercedes couldn’t manage to do the same thing with both drivers making little mistakes on their flying laps. Hamilton’s flying lap was still only 0.004s behind Vettel, though, with Rosberg a further four-tenths of a second behind his teammate.
Force India put their drivers on soft tyres for their qualifying runs. Nico Hulkenberg managed the best from the unusual strategy, finishing the session sixth fastest whilst his teammate, Sergio Perez, could only manage fifteenth.
Romain Grosjean was the only other driver to not complete a qualifying run on the super soft tyres early on in the session. The Frenchman had only managed an outlap when an electrical problem meant his car would be stuck in the pits for the rest of the session. The Frenchman did manage to get out again towards the end of the session, going twentieth and faster than his team mate.
The session ended with longer runs, which are always difficult to read as teams experiment with strategy. Hamilton seemed to be quicker than his team mate in the longer stints, though, which could be crucial for the Brit’s championship fight.
Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso ground to a halt at the entrance to the pit lane just as the session ended. Kvyat lost power after the chequered flag had been waved, and the team told the Russian to bring the car to a stop. Yellow flags were brought out as smoke emerged from the body of the Toro Rosso. It looks like it’ll be a late night for the Toro Rosso mechanics.
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