Verstappen's FP2 itself was not without incident, with the four-time world champion set to take a one-place grid penalty alongside Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson after the pair collided during the second practice session on Friday. The Dutchman's criticised Lawson's part in the incident, saying it was "not very smart behaviour... to pick a fight with me."

Verstappen was no less pleased with his RB22's performance during a practice start in the FP2 session. The 29-year-old has struggled off the line throughout the 2026 season, most recently losing a place to Charles Leclerc on Lap 1 of the US GP after a slow getaway.

Upon more poor starts at Mexico City's Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, a frustrated Verstappen said on team radio: "I think I could sprint faster off the line. Like, I do the start at the end of the pit lane, disaster. I do another start, another disaster."

Verstappen then pleaded with his team to "change something," even joking he could do a Le Mans-style running start. He added: "Why are we not just changing something?" Or it's better I do a Le Mans start, you know? I run, push the car and jump in. And then take off for the race."

Speaking post-FP2, Verstappen was then asked whether there was anything the team were able to work on in terms of the starts. "Nothing new," he replied, and when quizzed on whether he was still concerned going into the Mexico GP weekend, the Dutchman added: "Well, we know our limitations. It's not gonna magically change, you know, from one to the other weekend."

There are, however, reasons to be optimistic for Verstappen and Co. Suffering damage to his RB22's bargeboard thanks to the Lawson collision, Verstappen ended FP2 as fifth fastest, but nonetheless had encouraging performance during the Free Practice long runs.

Mercedes' George Russell recorded an average lap time of 1:21.442 on the same compound as Verstappen, just 0.048 seconds behind the Briton despite damage. Lando Norris was a little bit quicker with 1:21.319. In this sample, the Dutchman therefore averaged less than two tenths behind the fastest driver.