October 27 th , 2017.

TIMES CONTINUE TO TUMBLE AT AHR Red Bull throw down the gauntlet in second practice

• Danny Ric does the trick
• Seb gets a soaking
• Checo comfortably in top 10 again

Mexico City, Mex. – Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen put their Red Bull team firmly in the frame for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix when they finished first and third respectively in the second 90-minute practice session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez. In a session which typically mixed long and short runs to gauge the performance of Pirelli’s various compounds, those two and championship leader Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes were the only men to dip under the 1 minute 18 second mark. Ricciardo lowered the fastest time of the day to 1:17.801 – two-tenths of a second faster than the morning session, almost a second under Hamilton’s 2016 pole time, and an average lap speed of 199.154 kilometres per hour round the 1`6-corner, 4.304-km track. The championship’s top two drivers, Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, both had bizarre starts to the session. The Englishman had a big spin in Turn 11 and was called in for a general health check on his Mercedes; then Vettel reported ‘Something burst’ from his Ferrari cockpit. It seems the fire extinguisher had gone off, dousing the German’s backside in white foam, necessitating a replacement both for the gadget and for the driver’s red overalls. Once again the big three teams had all six of their drivers in the top six places, but this time Fernando Alonso was seventh for McLaren, relegating local hero Sergio Pérez to eighth-fastest on another good day for his Force India team. Pure coincidence? Four drivers sat out the first practice to give their teams’ reserve drivers a chance – and three of those four senior drivers were the bottom three in the second session. Haas driver Romain Grosjean made a bad start as well as a late one. Just three minutes into the session he half-spun out of Turn 16, locked the brakes in a lurid slide, and thought he had got away with just a puncture to the left rear tyre. Or did the puncture happen first and trigger the accident? Anyway, the rear tyre started to disintegrate, which tore a piece of bodywork off the car. It exploded into multiple fragments, and the red flag was shown to allow about 20 marshals to clear it all up. The session restarted soon after – but Grosjean didn’t and goes into Saturday with just three laps to his name this weekend. Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly isn’t much better off: he completed just 10 laps in the session before the car was brought in for checks by mechanics wearing masks – but not the colourful kind we are used to in Mexico at this time of year. He too sat out the rest of FP2. That’s not good news: Gasly may be the more experienced Toro Rosso driver this weekend – but this is only his third Grand Prix! Toro Rosso teammate Brendon Hartley, in only his second Grand Prix, did exceptionally well to claim 13th place despite a spin at Turn 6, a ‘strange sound’ from his engine and a ‘strange feeling’ at the end of the straight line late in the session. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, the other driver coming back into his own cockpit, was 18th. Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne was not much luckier than those three. He missed most of first practice as McLaren looked at a data problem with his car, then had to stop at pit lane exit on the session restart because he reported the car was going sideways… It had a loose wheel, but at least Vandoorne was able to go out again and finished 15th. Press Contacts: NKrush Liz Brooks [email protected] Mexican Grand Prix Daniela Mirassou [email protected] About the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE MÉXICO™: The top category of motorsport has returned to Mexico, after twenty-three years of absence, a pioneer of major sporting events in our country. With a validity from 2015 to 2019, the renewed Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez is the scene of the return of F1ESTA to the country, with a track of the highest world level. In its first two editions (2015 and 2016), more than 375 thousand people witnessed the race, becoming the second with more spectators worldwide (after Great Britain). To date, FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF MEXICO ™ has generated more than 22 thousand jobs and has achieved an economic spill of 1,119 MDD (24.841 billion pesos. One more year, Mexico will be positioned worldwide during the contest, which will take place from October 27 to 29, after being decorated in its first two editions as the Best Event of the Year by FIA and FOM, the highest authorities of the Professional motor racing worldwide. For more information on FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF MEXICO ™ visit: https://mexicogp.alucinaprojects.com/