'A day to forget' – Verstappen unclear on cause of engine issues as he rues ‘useless day’ of practice in Mexico

Max Verstappen was left with little data to go on following the opening day of track action at the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the Dutchman’s running in free practice curtailed by engine issues with his Red Bull.

After reporting that he had “no power” during the closing stages of FP1, Verstappen’s problems initially looked to have been fixed as FP2 arrived, a session extended by 30 minutes to allow for Pirelli 2025 tyre testing.

FP2: Sainz sets the pace as Russell crash disrupts practice session extended for Pirelli tyre testing in Mexico

However, in the early stages of second practice, Verstappen took to the radio to highlight a “weird noise” before being told to box. A second attempt to hit the track following a red flag period – owing to a crash for George Russell – resulted in the world champion again being called back to the pits due to the “same problem”.

Verstappen did not gain any further running from there onwards as the Red Bull crew looked to figure out the issue, with the 27-year-old admitting after the session that the team were still unclear on the cause.

“From the engine side we are checking – I don’t know exactly what it is,” said Verstappen. “But yeah, from my side a pretty much useless day, I did like four or five laps so that is not much. Not much to read into at the moment.”

When asked how the car has been feeling otherwise, Verstappen responded: “I cannot tell you, I mean I never really had a good run, only four or five laps in total and that’s even with some long run laps in it. So yeah, a day to forget.”

FP1: Russell leads Sainz and Tsunoda during first practice in Mexico after dramatic Albon/Bearman collision

And in terms of whether there are any concerns that the engine may need to be changed – potentially leading to a penalty – he added: “No, that will be alright.”

While team mate Sergio Perez was able to enjoy more mileage – ending FP1 in 10th place on the timesheets, while FP2 saw him finish in ninth – the Mexican did not feel entirely happy with the feeling in the car.

“It’s not feeling great,” he explained. “We have a few issues with the ride, in the low-speed I think we’ve got some work to do. We seem to be a little bit far from the top, so we seem to have some work to do.”

Quizzed on how much energy he is taking from his home crowd – and if he there is a clear direction for the work that needs to be carried out overnight in order to bounce back on Saturday – Perez answered: “Yeah, the crowd is amazing, definitely.

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“I wish that we were a little bit more competitive, but that’s not the case unfortunately. You never know tomorrow with the track changing, so anything can really happen.”