Verstappen ups title ante with P1 in FP2, Norris P4, Piastri crumbles

The Dutchman ended the qualifying simulation runs on top as he looks to continue his stunning championship charge at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with a 1.17.392 the laptime that sent him top.

Behind him was Leclerc, who topped FP1 earlier in the day, and Antonelli, who overcame some difficulties earlier in the session to round out the top three.

Behind the top three was the McLaren of Lando Norris, finishing two-tenths off the pace, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell taking P5 and P6, respectively.

Yuki Tsunoda finished with the seventh fastest time before the session came to an end, while Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten. Oscar Piastri's struggles continued as he could only finish P12.

The session started with plenty of action out on track, with Norris coming over his team radio to state he had some misfiring issues, while Kimi Antonelli had some 'limp home' problems with his Mercedes machine, keeping him in his garage for the first part of the session.

The tyre consensus for teams and drivers was the medium tyres, and Leclerc set the early pace ahead of Norris and Hamilton, while a few others on the grid scrubbed some soft tyres before the second part of the session.

Just before the halfway point was reached in the second session of the day, the soft tyres were then bolted onto the majority of cars, wth qualifying simulations taking place for the rest of FP2.

Verstappen was the first to set the pace on the soft tyres with a 1.17.392, with Leclerc and Russell rounding out the top three as the McLaren pair lost some time on their first laps on the red-walled tyres.

Antonelli, who was slightly behind schedule due to his 'limp home' issue, then found the pace to go P3, just +0.174 off Verstappen's fastest lap, with Norris and Hamilton also getting ahead of Russell in P6 to end the session.