With the prospect of breaking his own record for the most wins in a season should he chalk up a 16th success of 2023 in Mexico, Verstappen enjoyed a strong start to the weekend by topping both FP1 and FP2 in his RB19.
The three-time Mexico GP winner paced Alex Albon's Williams in the opening session by 0.095s in the opening session before lowering his 1m19.718s benchmark to a 1m18.686s that shaded Lando Norris by 0.119s before rain fell in FP2.
Verstappen's only moments of concern came when he identified a tear-off that had become lodged in his rear suspension and encountered stiff resistance when attempting to pass a feisty Valtteri Bottas into Turn 1.
Behind Norris, who had clocked the fourth-fastest time in FP1 behind Verstappen, Albon and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, came the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc one week on from his disqualification in Austin.
The session was less straightforward for Fernando Alonso, who spun through 360 degrees on the exit of Turn 9 to root his set of soft tyres,
Bottas was a fighting fourth for Alfa Romeo ahead of Perez, a result made all the more impressive by his having to give up the Ferrari-powered Alfa in FP1 for Formula 2 points leader Theo Pourchaire as part of F1's mandatory rookie running.
Fellow F2 drivers Ollie Bearman (Haas), Isack Hadjar (AlphaTauri) and Fredrik Vesti (Mercedes) all had their first experiences of an official F1 weekend, while for Hadjar it was a first experience of F1 machinery full-stop.
Meanwhile, Jack Doohan returned to the Alpine cockpit for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2022.
Source: Autosport