Max Verstappen has set the fastest time during the second free practice for the Mexican Grand Prix. The Dutchman was almost half a second faster than Valtteri Bottas in second place. Lewis Hamilton follows behind his teammate on P3.

Red Bull Racing is the big favourite this weekend at the circuit in Mexico. It's a true Red Bull circuit and Verstappen has won there twice before. Although they weren't the fastest team in the first free practice, they managed to put that right in VT2.

Chaos with traffic

The training started with a lot of chaos. It was immediately crowded on the track and the drivers fought with each other for positions on the track. Verstappen set the fastest time at the beginning of the session. Hamilton followed quickly on the hard tyre and was half a second slower than the Dutchman, who drove on the medium tyre, but the British driver's lap time was removed due to track limits.

Halfway through the session the drivers started a run on the soft tyre. Verstappen was more than half a second faster than Hamilton and after a few minutes Bottas also managed to improve and set a faster time than the Brit. Home favourite Sergio Perez fell just outside the top three and finished in fourth place with a small gap to Mercedes.

Problems for Ricciardo and Russell

After the fast laps on the soft compound the teams focused on the long runs for the rest of the practice session. Therefore no fast laps were driven anymore. Verstappen and Perez focused on the medium tyre in the long runs, while Mercedes practised mainly on the soft and hard tyre.

Due to gearbox problems George Russell had to skip the second practice session. Daniel Ricciardo also had problems with his gearbox after a few laps, which meant he was unable to continue his participation.