Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel leads the way in FP2 | 2019 Mexican GP. Results from FP2 in Mexico.

Sebastian Vettel has gone comfortably quickest in second practice, as he showed off Ferrari’s potential in Mexico City.

Sebastian Vettel has finished the second practice session in Mexico City as fastest man. There had been indications after Friday’s early FP1 session that Ferrari had been confident enough in their pace to not run the Soft tyre during the opening session, and this played out when the two Ferrari drivers did fit the red marked Soft tyres halfway through FP2.

It was a session topped by the Scuderia almost from the get-go, as Vettel had gone quickest early in the session on the Medium tyres. Putting in a 1:17.960 on the yellow tyres, he enjoyed a two tenths advantage over Charles Leclerc – helped out by Leclerc spinning at Turn 1 when he lost the rear under braking at the end of the long pit straight. Lewis Hamilton was also in the mix, as he slotted his Merc into P3 just before the session was red-flagged for just over five minutes.

This was to allow the marshals to recover Alex Albon’s car after he crashed his Red Bull into the barriers on the outside of the entry to the esses in Sector 2. Albon took too much kerb on the outside on entry into the corner and lost the rear of the RB15, sliding sideways and damaging the right hand side of the car. With the car brought behind the barriers, Red Bull have to wait until the end of the practice session to assess the damage and see whether any critical components have been damaged.

When the session resumed, Ferrari sent their drivers out on the Soft tyres for the first time. Leclerc promptly did a 1:17.072 to go fastest, fastest of all in the first and second sectors. Vettel, moments later, then went quicker than Leclerc in all three sectors to pop in a 1:16.607 to go almost half a second clear of anyone. This time went unbeaten for the rest of second practice, as the focus switched over to the race simulations.