Max Verstappen fastest on Friday in Mexico: 'Problem with the long runs'

Published on 25 October 2025 by Florence Cobben

Max Verstappen has finished the second free practice for the Mexican Grand Prix as the fastest man on track. He sat out from the action in the first free practice, watching rom the pit wall as Red Bull Junior Arvid Lindblad drove his car. Only with the start of the second free practice did Max gradually start picking up the pace for the weekend. Halfway through the session, he got down to business, and with a qualifying run on soft tyres, the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver clocked a time of 1:17.392, ultimately placing him 0.153 seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, who finished P2 in his Ferrari. Kimi Antonelli set the third fastest time in the Mercedes.

Reflecting on the session, Max opines: “The short run on the soft – we managed to do a good lap. The rest, everything else, was pretty bad. The medium short run was not great, and the big one was the long runs, where we seem to struggle a lot. That is of course a big concern for the race.”

Max doesn’t know as of yet where the problems stem from: “I don’t know yet. The balance wasn’t even off – there was just no grip, which, that is the bigger concern. So as soon as you go in for a sustainable run, the tyres are getting hot. Yeah, we were nowhere. That’’s a tough one to figure out. You can be fast over one lap, but if you have absolutely zero pace in the race, it’s going to be very tough.*

Max Verstappen had to sit out the first practice session so Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad could take his car for a spin, and finish the RB21 in a respectable sixth. For FP2, the keys to the vehicle were back in Max’s hands. Once the lights go green, it's incredibly busy at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Max, too, immediately heads out on track with a set of medium compound tyres underneath him. Flowviz paint has also been applied to the RB21’s sidepods to map the airflow of the new floor the team has brought this weekend.

Max gradually builds up his pace. When the session is ten minutes old, Max clocks a time of 1:19.044, putting him in fourth place for the time being. A short while later, Max improves his time to a 1:18.727, remaining in P4. Charles Leclerc is out front setting the pace, after the Monegasque driver also recorded the fastest time in the first free practice session.

After a short stay in the pits, Max switches to the soft tyres. With these, the four-time world champion clocks the weekend’s fastest time so far (1:17.392). After this qualifying simulation, Verstappen returns to the Red Bull garage. Leclerc follows in P2, with Russell in P3 and 30 minutes left on the clock.

As usual for the second free practice session, the drivers shift their focus to race pace in the closing stages of the practice. Max goes out on a set of mediums and circles the track twelve times, setting lap times in the 1 minute 22 range. Verstappen finishes his session by running one last final lap on the soft tyres to gather more data for the race. There are no further changes to the standings at the top of the timesheets, meaning Max ends the second free practice session as the fastest man on track. In a session unencumbered by any notable incidents, Leclerc finishes one and a half tenths of a second behind Verstappen in P2, with Kimi Antonelli close behind in third place. Lando Norris is fourth, with Lewis Hamilton in P5.

Contest GP Mexico: win a by Max Verstappen signed Red Bull Racing cap!

Results second free practice Mexico: