George Russell endured a hefty crash in Formula 1’s second practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix to introduce a lengthy red flag.

The Briton took too much kerb at Turn 9 and it visibly upset his Mercedes’ handling as the rear of the car began to bounce, pitching Russell into the Tecpro barrier sideways.

Russell was able to get out of the car unaided – though clutching his midriff – and the nature of the impact necessitated the appearance of the medical car, which took him to the circuit’s medical centre for checks.

Mercedes has since announced that the English driver has been released from the medical centre and made his way back to the hospitality, clarifying: “He’s physically okay but it was a significant impact.”

This led to a 24-minute break in proceedings to repair the Tecpro barriers damaged in the Russell impact on the exit of Turn 9, before the session was able to get going again. 

Russell’s Mercedes sustained heavy damage to the right-hand side of the car, particularly to the sidepod and rear wing, and thus will require lengthy repairs overnight.

It was the second heavy impact sustained by Russell in consecutive weeks after he spun out at Turn 19 in qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

FP2 had been extended to 90 minutes for the purposes of a Pirelli tyre test; the control tyre supplier set out the run plans for all teams – with 30 minutes of free running granted to the drivers who missed FP1 after giving up their seats to young drivers.

The additional Pirelli tyres supplied are all unmarked; each driver was given an additional two sets of tyres, one of a 2024 compound used during the weekend, and another of a 2025 construction to provide back-to-back data without visually revealing the softness of the compounds themselves. One of these includes a C6 compound at an even softer grade.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has confirmed that Yuki Tsunoda will drive the team’s RB20 in Formula 1’s end-of-season Abu Dhabi test.

RB driver Tsunoda has only had experience of Red Bull machinery in demo runs, although tried the Red Bull RB18 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in an open-face helmet and goggles.

Honda has been keen for Tsunoda to test a Red Bull in a more representative environment, and the president of its racing division HRC Koji Watanabe told Motorsport.com earlier this month that the manufacturer had “strongly requested that Tsunoda be given the chance to drive and test in a Red Bull car.”

Horner said that the run in a Red Bull had been agreed “for some time” and that he was looking forward to seeing how Tsunoda would get on in a title-contending car.

“Yuki is a member of the junior team, and it’s something that we have discussed with Honda,” Horner explained.

“He will test the car at the tyre test following the conclusion of the season, and it’s something that has been agreed for quite some time.

“It will again be good to give him a run, and get the opportunity to work with Red Bull Racing engineers and see how he performs in a Red Bull Racing car.”

Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

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This comes as Tsunoda has appeared to have been overlooked by Red Bull in recent months; his team-mate Liam Lawson has already tried the RB20 in a tyre test earlier this year, as the Kiwi has been linked to Red Bull as a potential replacement for the under-fire Sergio Perez.

Asked if the team was looking to make a final call on drivers at the end of the season, potentially with Lawson stepping up to the lead Red Bull team in place of Perez, Horner asserted that Perez was still contracted for next season.

He added that he would work with RB’s management to ensure that both teams had the best line-ups available.

“As I mentioned earlier, Checo has a contract for next year, so he’s currently our driver for 2025,” Horner said.

“Obviously there is a seat available at VCARB, but they’re all Red Bull Racing drivers that are on loan.

“We have the benefit of time to sit down with Laurent [Mekies, RB team principal] and Peter [Bayer, RB CEO] and look at all the options.”

Becoming Homestead-Miami Speedway Track President in July of this year, Guillermo Santa Cruz will oversee his first NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck weekend when Homestead hosts the midpoint of the Round of 8. But many — Santa Cruz included — would love to see the track return to its old position as NASCAR’s season finale.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Santa Cruz expressed respect for NASCAR’s scheduling decisions, but still spoke on a desire to return the track to its former role.

“We would love to have the championship back,” Santa Cruz told Motorsport.com. “We make no bones about it. I’m very open about it and it takes a lot to bring a championship to any city. The fact that it was here for 18 years was obviously a plus because we have that tradition. We have the incredible weather that we typically have this time of year. We have the Florida Keys [a] 20 minute drive away. There’s a lot to offer here — not only for the drivers, but for the spectators and everybody who loves motorsports.

“Ideally in a perfect world, one day the championship will come back. And I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t working on that and wasn’t trying to make that happen. Yes, we want the championship to come back. That’s not a secret,” says Santa Cruz.

The last champion to be crowned at Homestead-Miami Speedway: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry in 2019

Photo by: Rusty Jarrett / NKP / Motorsport Images

Guillermo is new to the NASCAR world, but he brings with him an impressive resume in the sports media world. He’s worked in sports media for more than three years and has produced two FIFA World Cups on Univision, as well as the Olympics after moving to Telemundo. The bulk of his career was spent at IMG — a global sports and culture company company — spending 11 years there, where he even did some consulting for NASCAR. Motorsport.com was curious to learn why he chose to make this career change less than four months ago.

“I think one of the principle reasons why I took it is because I believe Homestead is really the future of south Florida,” explained Santa Cruz, a Miami native. “There’s so much happening here. There’s so much going on. The time was right to make a change. I’ve had a long career in sports and this was a new challenge. The direction NASCAR is going was another appealing factor about it.

“More than anything: One, the challenge and two, I knew it would be fun. And fun it has been.”

While he admits he is still learning the ropes of the stock car racing world, he is well aware of the fact that this is a track beloved by drivers and fans. It’s often celebrated as one of the best for passing on the entire schedule, and that’s a huge argument for why people want to see it take its place back as the finale, which has been held at Phoenix Raceway since 2020.

“From a marketing and product perspective, that took care of a lot of questions,” said Santa Cruz when asked about the track’s popularity. “The drivers like it and that means the product is good, the racing is good, so we don’t have to worry about that,” said Santa Cruz. “And to be fair to NASCAR and to me, that wouldn’t be my expertise. I wouldn’t know how to fix the track if that was an issue — if the competition wasn’t good. But the competition is good. The drivers love it. So in that regard, we’re great.”

Kyle Larson, Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, Daniel Suarez, Trackhouse Racing, Freeway.com Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Jared East / NKP / Motorsport Images

Despite losing its place as the finale, Homestead still plays a pivotal role in deciding the 2024 champion. As one of three races in the Round of 8, a win at the 1.5-mile speedway means an automatic entry for any of the eight remaining title combatants. 

“Homestead is wonderful test of skill and ability and strategy,” he said of its current role in the playoffs. “It has done that throughout its history and we can expect that here on Sunday. Only three spots are left so if you’re gonna make it move, you gotta make it now.”

Another schedule move

Unfortunately, the Homestead date will move yet again in 2025. The track will be out of the playoffs completely, moved to an early season date similar to its placement as the third round of 2021.

When asked about discussions regarding the race’s future and the possibility of moving it back into the playoffs in any way for 2026 or beyond, Santa Cruz provided a diplomatic answer. 

“Were excited to have a race any time and we’re ready to go a moment’s notice,” he told Motorsport.com. “We take a lot of pride in that here. This track is always ready to go.”

He went on the praise the spring date while also looking towards the future, saying: “March is a great date … we welcome that and we’re happy to race in March. As far as the future after that, whether it’s another playoff race or something else, we’re open to that.

“There’s a lot of decision-making that goes into those things. The weather has a lot to do with it, not only here, but in other parts of the country so it’s a little bit of a chess move with how you do the schedule. We’ll be ready to go whenever they [NASCAR] want us to race. We’re good, but yes, we would love to have the championship back.”

George Russell went quickest in a twice red-flagged opening practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix, as Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman collided at Turn 9.

Russell set a 1m17.998s on the soft-tyre runs to go three tenths faster than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in a stop-start session, with the first interruption coming five minutes in to clear a sliver of debris sat ahead of Turn 1.

Both Albon and Bearman were involved in the second; the Williams driver was on a push lap and caught a slowing Bearman at Turn 9 and lifted off, which caused his car to snap – he clipped the Ferrari reserve driver and went straight on into the wall.

The second red flag produced a 14-minute delay, and practice resumed with 24 minutes left on the clock.

Sainz had led the way after the opening runs on the hard tyre ahead of the second pause and then continued to headline the session on the soft tyre as he set a 1m18.573s lap to kick off the first performance runs of the weekend.

Russell found almost six tenths over the Spaniard to go faster, breaking into the 1m17s in the process, although Sainz got closer with a follow-up 1m18.315s time to close the gap.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was third fastest in a jumbled order, 0.7 seconds off the pace, while Max Verstappen was a further tenth-and-a-half behind.

The Dutchman reported over the radio that he was suffering with a power unit issue, and slowly made his way back to the pits with over five minutes remaining and took no further part in the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth fastest over Oscar Piastri, who contended that his McLaren felt ‘pretty terrible’ during his soft-tyre runs and subsequently put together a longer hard-tyre stint to gather further data.

Esteban Ocon was seventh, albeit a second off the pace, ahead of the closely-matched Valtteri Bottas, Liam Lawson, and Sergio Perez.

Future Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli enjoyed a longer FP1 session versus his Monza outing, taking Lewis Hamilton’s car to 12th in the order – a tenth behind Franco Colapinto.

Pato O’Ward drove Lando Norris’ car in his home FP1 session and was 13th fastest, while fellow stand-ins Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin), Robert Shwartzman (Sauber) and Bearman (Ferrari) propped up the order.

Alex Rins says he is still struggling to adapt his riding style to the Yamaha M1 package and feels he cannot simply copy Fabio Quartararo’s efforts in MotoGP.

With Rins approaching the conclusion of his maiden premier class campaign with the Japanese manufacturer, he has consistently been unable to match team-mate Quartararo’s performances and results.

That has continued in Thailand, with Quartararo ending Friday 12th overall and Rins down in 18th, with almost half a second splitting them on single-lap pace.

After a 2023 MotoGP season blighted by injury, Rins’ switch from Honda to Yamaha has seen him struggle to get back to the form that had him score five victories with Suzuki, along with his sole triumph for Honda in the United States last year.

While Rins’ arrival coincided with Yamaha’s ongoing difficulty in extracting more performance from the M1 package, the Spaniard – who has a best result of ninth place in Aragon this season – feels he still doesn’t have a bike to suit his riding style.

“Every time I come back from the track I try to give good feedback, I still do not feel that they have given me a bike that resembles my riding style,” he commented after Friday practice for the Thailand Grand Prix.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Rins feels he simply cannot copy Quartararo’s riding style and that it wouldn’t be a fruitful pursuit regardless, given the French rider is also unable to be competitive at the sharp end of the grid.

“I cannot copy Fabio’s bike, I do not have his riding style,” he added. “When I come back from the track the feedback I give is the best I know. In the end there are no bad people here in MotoGP, Yamaha is a factory team that has the best people.

“Obviously he is going through a tough time, but Fabio has won a championship and many races with this bike, and now he is not achieving it, and there is a reason for that.

“We are in a period of quite a bit of stress, of evolution and maybe that is what we have to go through now.”

Formula 1 practice at non-sprint weekends is a well-known format – teams have an hour in both FP1 and FP2 on Fridays and then a third 60-minute session on Saturday before qualifying.

But second practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix will take on a different format as Pirelli conducts a vital test ahead of its 2025 tyre compound homologation.

The change mirrors the one made for last year’s event, where the Italian manufacturer trialled a prototype C4 compound ahead of the current campaign.

Pirelli needs real working data when finalising its homologation ahead of the new season, which will again see F1 travel to 24 destinations across the globe, and with a lack of in-season testing time, this weekend’s practice session has been earmarked as a chance to gather information.

As explained by Pirelli, the session will be “entirely given over to validating” the tyre range’s softest compounds for next year: the C4, C5 and C6 compounds.

To facilitate the test, FP2 will be extended to 90 minutes, with all drivers and teams obliged to follow a run plan established by Pirelli’s engineers.

Engineers from Aston Martin and Pirelli check the Medium and Soft tyres

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

So, in addition to the usual dry tyre allocation for the grand prix weekend, drivers will be given two more sets of tyres. One will be a test control tyre – i.e. the same compound as the soft in the normal allocation – and the other will be a 2025 prototype, which Pirelli has confirmed was homologated in September.

The specified programmes will include a qualifying simulation run and a race simulation run, with “every team running the same number of laps with the same quantity of fuel onboard” – dependent on which run type is being performed.

These tyre sets will be identifiable as they will not run with coloured sidewalls.

A complication for the test is that some contracted race drivers will be making way for rookies to complete one of the regulation-mandated rookie runs in FP1, with a lack of on-track time compared to rivals potentially putting those that stepped aside at a disadvantage.

Pirelli has counteracted this by handing those affected an additional set of medium compound tyres for FP2 and allow them 30 minutes of ‘free’ running, thus only obliged to complete 60 minutes of tyre testing.

Data from the test will be analysed before the post-season group tyre test, which will take place at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

With what is essentially only two hours of running to gather race-representative data, teams will face a similar engineering challenge to that of a sprint weekend, albeit with slight respite from the extra practice session before parc ferme is locked in.

Why has Pirelli chosen Mexico?

While you would expect the extra time to be a profit for teams and drivers for the weekend, it actually doesn’t work out that way for everyone given the requirements of the test.

As Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg’s race engineer Gary Gannon told Motorsport.com, drivers must not get suckered into changing the balance of the car off the back of running on the prototype tyres.

Gannon also pointed out there was no advantage from running two contracted racers in FP1 over those testing rookies, explaining: “If you are not running a young driver in FP1, you are not able to utilise the extra time, so for us, running two racing drivers in FP1, in FP2 we are only doing the Pirelli tyre test programme.

“So FP2 is lost in terms of our understanding and use for the race weekend, so we have to do all of our kind of Friday learning in FP1.”

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is an outlier on the F1 calendar due to its track layout and high altitude, which would suggest it as a strange option for a tyre test.

But this is exactly why it has been chosen and Gannon added: “Pirelli’s tyres need to work in all conditions, so it is particularly important to find out if they are particularly weak… they may have a compound that works great at Barcelona where there is a lot of tyre energy and the tyres work because you are always pushing them.

“Here is one of the extreme cases and so we have a good baseline, we have the baseline tyre and we have the morning running so they will know what the grip should feel like. Also, the track improves a lot in FP1, that’s why you do the test in FP2, because if you try to do the test out of the box in FP1, the track is changing very dramatically as it gets cleaned up and rubbered in.

“In FP2, the conditions are very stable, so you can find out if this new compound or new construction they have come up with has some weakness on very low grip or smooth tarmac surfaces.

“So they need to be trying all these outlier circuits because that’s where you will have a miserable weekend if you deliver tyres that only work in low-downforce, for example.”