Nico Rosberg recovered from his morning brake problems to set the fastest time in🌠 second free practice for the Mexican Grand Prix as drizzle in the closing stages negated any furth🌞er improvements.

With drivers noticeably struggling for grip around thꦑe newly revamped Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in FP1, as expected lap times plummeted during the afternoon session𝕴 as the surface bedded in.

Even so, it was still a treacherous session for a number🌺 of drivers, with several swapping ends as they found the limit of the Mexico City venue, beginning with FP1 pace setter Max Verstappen who spun at the final corner on his first lap and struck the wall, putting him out for the day.

New champion Lewis H๊amilton also suffered a spin, while Valtteri Bottas was particularly fortunate to avoid a more serious incident when he lꦏost control at high-speed into the first corner, but managed to keep most of the car out of the wall.

By contrast, Rosberg that would avoid the drama this time - having missed part of FP1 when his Mercedes' brakes caught alight - to stop the clock at 1min 21.531secs, the soft tyres giving up a four second gain compared with the morning session. His t🦩op spot was then assured by the emergence of rain with 25mins of the session remaining.

Maintaining a strong start to the weekend for Re𝔍d Bull, Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top three, the RB11's handling ability on the slippery infield seemingly making up for its top speed disadvantage down the home straight.

Despite his innocuous spin on the low-grip surface, Hamilton was fourth fastest, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi R𒊎aikkonen in the Ferraris. Despite his wild off, w💯hich only took off the front wing as the Williams kissed the wall, Bottas recovered to seventh best.

Despi꧙te modest aspirations at the start of the weekend, McLaren-Honda showed decent form in FP2, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button going eighth and ninth best, around 1.5secs off the pace. Having sat out FP1 with an issue, Button still only managed a handful of l𝔍aps in the second-half of FP2 but was good enough to squeeze into the top ten, pushing Felipe Massa down to tenth.

With hiဣgh expectations for the weekend, local hero Sergio Perez endured a tough session down in 15th, ahead🉐 of Romain Grosjean, who stopped on track with mechanical issues.