PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Can Verstappen continue his McLaren chase in Mexico?

Max Verstappen kept his foot on the gas to stay in full chase mode in Mexico as he set an impressive pace in his Red Bull in Mexico – but a hot, dirty track created low-grip conditions and made it very difficult to nail down a true pecking order after two hours of practice on Friday. Here's what we know so far...

An upgraded Red Bull quick over one lap

Reigning World Champion Verstappen was one of nine race drivers to miss FP1 as teams took the opportunity to run a young driver, but the Dutchman needed very little time to get comfortable on the soft tyre on lower fuel in second practice to set the quickest time.

Red Bull brought another upgrade to Mexico, which included a tweak to the new floor they introduced at Monza, and ran a set-up that gave a gain in the corners (around 0.2s in the slow stuff, about 0.1s in the medium-speed turns) and a higher straight-line aero efficiency than McLaren.