Max Verstappen endured an average start to the Mexican Grand Prix weekend by his impeccable standards, as the double World Champion ended the opening day behind some of his key rivals.
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit is always one of the most important to gather data at prior to qualifying and the race, due to the venue being the highest on the calendar, at a staggering 2,200 metres above sea-level.
This means the air is incredibly thin, something which saw a number of teams suffer from engine reliability problems, including, AlphaTauri.
AlphaTauri do, of course, use Honda engines just like Red Bull, something which might have the Austrians concerned going into the important part of the weekend.
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Verstappen has always gone well at the venue in Mexico City and ended FP1 in fourth, a staggering 0.120 seconds behind fastest of the day Carlos Sainz.
Astonishingly, Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Pérez set identical lap-times; however, the Mexican claimed third after setting the time before the Dutchman.
Verstappen appeared to be wrestling with the RB18 throughout the morning session in order to generate as much heat as possible into the tyres, something which appeared to be an issue off the racing line.
The Dutchman did endure an almost highly costly spin during the morning session, where it at first looked like he’d corrected a slide, before eventually succumbing to it and spinning around at Turn 11.
He did manage to keep the car out of the wall after demonstrating some unsurprisingly incredible car control skills, before laughing about the spin when he re-joined the circuit.
Verstappen told reporters that the circuit was “like ice” when he wasn’t on the ideal line, where he explained how his spin occurred.
“Yeah I just had a moment and as soon as I came a bit off-line it as like ice,” he told reporters.
“So I was just drifting left, drifting right, and I decided at one point when it goes just hold the brakes but not hit the wall.”
Verstappen hailed the spin as “unbelievable” when he re-joined the circuit, where he was heard chuckling to himself that he “couldn’t correct it” due to “so little grip”.
The Dutchman went on to finish sixth in the afternoon session; however, FP2 was done on the 2023 prototype tyres, making for useless reading ahead of the weekend.
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Verstappen believes Friday was a “tricky day” and is expecting a “tough battle” on Saturday for pole.
“It was a tricky day to get a read on things, as is typical in Mexico with the altitude,” Verstappen explained in Red Bull’s press release.
“It is very easy to make mistakes in these conditions so overall I think we had an ok day. Ferrari look strong, as do Mercedes, so it is going to be a tough battle tomorrow in qualifying.”