Sainz tops times as Russell crashes in Mexico GP practice

AFP | Mexico City                                                      

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Carlos Sainz topped the times for Ferrari ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Friday’s crash-hit second free practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Spaniard clocked a best lap in one minute and 17.699 seconds to beat the Australian by 0.178 seconds in a session of mandatory Pirelli tyre testing interrupted when Mercedes’ George Russell crashed heavily.

The British driver, who had also crashed at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, was unhurt, but required a check-up at the circuit medical centre before he was released to rejoin his team.

Defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull also missed most of the session with engine problems.

Russell lost control of his car after riding over a kerb at Turn Eight at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and sliding backwards across the track into a protected wall at Turn Nine. One side of his car was destroyed.

“I just don’t know what happened,” Russell said. “It bounced on the ground and before I could catch it had spun ... It’s one thing after another at the moment for us so it’s a lot of work for the guys. “It means that FP3 will be very important, so I hope the car is fixed.”

It was the third red-flag interruption of the day following two during the earlier free practice, when Russell topped the times.

Yuki Tsunoda was third for RB ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc -- who won in Austin last Sunday -- and McLaren’s title-chasing Lando Norris, who is 57 points adrift of Verstappen with five races remaining this year.

Kevin Magnussen was sixth-quickest for Haas ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes. Hamilton was followed by Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, local hero Sergio Perez of Red Bull and Liam Lawson in the second RB.