Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen dominated both free practice sessions in Mexico, going fastest of everyone on both the ultrasoft and hypersoft tyres, with a strong showing from Renault in both sessions as well.
With the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez not used extensively during the year, there was a ‘green’ and slippery surface in the morning with plenty of track evolution, which influenced the action, and some graining seen on the hypersoft. While the teams run a reasonably high downforce set-up, effectively this provides low downforce due to the thin air at high altitude in Mexico. Track temperatures were warm today, peaking at nearly 50 degrees centigrade in FP2, with cooling often being an issue in the race as well.

Although the hypersofts provide a certain pace advantage, degradation on them so far has been high, which will influence tomorrow’s qualifying strategy if it continues and add another element of unpredictability to the race.

MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR RACING
“It was quite a tricky day to interpret, although in many ways a bit similar to what we saw in Mexico last year. Today, there was high degradation on the hypersoft in free practice, which is of course two steps softer than the softest compound we brought to Mexico in 2017 (ultrasoft). If this continues throughout the weekend, it will influence qualifying strategy, with some teams perhaps choosing to prioritise durability over outright pace, and a few different strategies presenting themselves for the race. A lot more data analysis is needed tonight and FP3 to fully understand the situation. There’s a chance of rain on Saturday night, which would obviously ‘reset’ the track and wash away the rubber that’s been deposited so far. In any case, it already promises to be a great fight over the rest of the weekend”

FREE PRACTICE 1 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME      COMPOUND
Verstappen 	1m16.656s HYPERSOFT NEW
Ricciardo	1m17.139s HYPERSOFT NEW
Sainz 		1m17.926s HYPERSOFT NEW

FREE PRACTICE 2 – TOP 3 TIMES
DRIVER 		TIME 	  COMPOUND
Verstappen 	1m16.720s HYPERSOFT NEW
Ricciardo	1m16.873s HYPERSOFT NEW
Sainz 		1m17.953s HYPERSOFT NEW

FP1 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
SUPERSOFT 	- 	   -
ULTRASOFT	Hamilton   1m18.075s
HYPERSOFT 	Verstappen 1m16.656s

FP2 - BEST TIME BY COMPOUND
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   TIME
SUPERSOFT 	Hamilton   1m18.779s
ULTRASOFT	Verstappen 1m17.437s
HYPERSOFT 	Verstappen 1m16.720s

MOST LAPS BY COMPOUND SO FAR
COMPOUND 	DRIVER 	   LAPS
SUPERSOFT 	Raikkonen  31
ULTRASOFT	Bottas	   25
HYPERSOFT 	Hartley    21

TYRE STATISTICS OF THE DAY
		     SUPERSOFT  ULTRASOFT  HYPERSOFT
Kms driven* 	     908 	1230 	   2806
Sets used overall**  8  	18	   53

* The above number gives the total amount of kilometres
driven in FP1 and FP2 today, all drivers combined.
** Per compound, all drivers combined.