Nico Rosberg is quickest ahead of the Red Bull in FP2 at Mexico

In the second practice session in Mexico yesterday, Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg topped the timesheets ahead of the Red Bull drivers of Dakniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo.

As per the first session, the opening half-hour was dominated by a number of spins and incidents.After leading the way in first practice (controversially so) Max Verstappen’s second practice was over inside five minutes after sliding into a barrier out of the exit of Turn 16, one of the slower sections of the track.

This then brought out the red flags while his Toro Rosso was recovered and started a series of spins and slides for a number of drivers on the very slippery asphalt.

With the poor weather conditions in recent months in Mexico City delayed the laying of the top layer of the circuit and with it still being so new and with oils forcing their way to the surface, it resulted in plenty of action on the track.

After a seven-minute delay under the red flags, Valtteri Bottas was the next to suffer as he lost his Williams under braking at high speed into Turn 1, with Bottas fortunate enough to only escape with losing his front wing after clipping a barrier.

During FP2, Turn 1 proved to be particularly troublesome with Carlos Sainz Jr, home hero Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonado all going off track at that point. Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel only just held onto his Ferrari on entry to the pitlane at one stage, while Hamilton spun out of the sharp-left Turn 4, resulting in him facing the wrong way.

With 28 minutes remaining in the session, Lotus driver Romain Grosjean became the second retiree of the session and pulled his Lotus off on to the grass at Turn 10 due to a clutch problem. This then resulted in a second red-flag period as he helped the marshals push his car behind a barrier.

But it was Nico Rosberg who topped the timesheets with a lap time of 1.21.531 ahead of Daniil Kvyat in second place who was 0.245 seconds behind him but was ahead of his team mate Daniel Ricciardo who finished in third place who was 0.337 seconds behind the Mercedes of Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton finished the session in fourth place ahead of Sebastian Vettel in fifth place, Kimi Raikkonen in sixth place and Valtteri Bottas in seventh place. Fernando Alonso ended the session in eighth place ahead of local driver Jenson Button in ninth place and Felipe Massa who rounds off the top ten finishers.

Nico Hulkenberg ended the session in eleventh place ahead of Pastor Maldonado in twelfth place, Carlos Sainz Jr in thirteenth place, Felipe Nasr in fourteenth place and ahead of Sergio Perez in fifteenth place. As we head into the latter stages of the grid, Romain Grosjean finished in sixteenth place ahead of Marcus Ericsson in seventeenth place, Alexander Rossi in eighteenth place, Will Stevens in nineteenth place and Max Verstappen who rounded off the grid in twentieth place.

The classification of FP2 for the Mexican GP is as follows:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1.21.531
2. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull Renault, 0.245s
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault, 0.337s
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 0.430s
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 0.453s
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 0.868s
7. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes, 1.190s
8. Fernando Alonso, McLaren-Honda, 1.462s
9. Jenson Button, McLaren-Honda, 1.578s
10. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1.758s
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India-Mercedes, 1.759s
12. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.832s
13. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1.833s
14. Felipe Nasr, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.899s
15. Sergio Perez, Force India-Mercedes, 2.066s
16. Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 2.083s
17. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 3.002s
18. Alexander Rossi, Manor, 4.409s
19. Will Stevens, Manor, 5.437s
20. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, Not classified

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa