Russell crashes out of FP2 at the Mexican GP, ​​resulting in a red flag

George Russell suffered a serious accident in Formula 1's second practice session at the Mexican Grand Prix, resulting in a lengthy red flag.

The Brit took a sharp curb in Turn 9, which visibly affected the handling of his Mercedes as the rear of the car began to bounce and threw Russell sideways into the Tecpro barrier.

Russell was able to exit the car without assistance – although he held on to his waist – and the nature of the impact required the appearance of the medical vehicle, which took him to the circuit's medical center for examination.

Mercedes has since announced that the English driver has been discharged from the medical center and is on his way back to hospitality, clarifying: “He is physically fine, but it has been a significant strain.”

This resulted in a 24-minute break in work to repair the Tecpro barriers damaged in the Russell impact at the exit of Turn 9 before the session could resume.

Russell's Mercedes suffered serious damage to the right side of the car, particularly the sidepod and rear wing, and will therefore require extensive repairs overnight.

It was the second serious crash suffered by Russell in consecutive weeks after he retired at Turn 19 during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

“I don't really know what happened, the car just started bouncing on the ground. And before I even had a chance to catch it, the car was already spinning,” Russell explained after the session.

“Tonight there is a lot of work for the boys again, at the moment it feels like it's one thing after another, but it's frustrating because in the first practice we were really strong and very fast.”

“I tried to take that corner the same way and for whatever reason, on that occasion in FP2 I just felt so bad.

“The second FP2, as it was the Pirelli tire test, was not particularly valuable in terms of what you would learn before the race weekend. Obviously we missed laps, FP3 will be important, I just hope we can get the car repaired.

FP2 was extended to 90 minutes for a Pirelli tire test; The control tire supplier set the running schedules for all teams with set fuel quantities, with the possibility of minimal adjustments. The riders who missed FP1 after giving up their places to young riders will be able to switch to their usual weekend allocation for the final half hour to make up for the lack of regular action.

The additionally supplied Pirelli tires are all unmarked; Each driver received two additional sets of tires, one with a 2024 compound used over the weekend and another with a 2025 construction to provide sequential data without visually revealing the softness of the compounds themselves. One of them includes a C6 mixture in an even softer quality.