Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton fears Red Bull is “out of reach” at the Mexican Grand Prix, following Friday’s opening pair of practice sessions.
Max Verstappen led a Red Bull 1-2 during both sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as both he and Daniel Ricciardo finished over a second clear of the field.
Hamilton, who will clinch the title if either Vettel does not win or he classifies in the top seven himself, was seventh best in FP2, 1.380s behind Verstappen.
“The car was good in some places, but not so good in others,” said Hamilton.
“It's not about one particular area; there are lots of different things that we can improve. It was difficult with the high track temperatures, which were melting and graining the tyres, but a lot of people were experiencing that today.
“We run the biggest wings at this track but are still quite quick on the straights because of the altitude, but then there's not a lot of grip through the corners, even on the Hypersoft tyres.
“We've got some ground to catch up on, so we're now going to go through everything in the debrief and look at all the details to find some answers.
“Red Bull seem out of our reach at the moment, Ferrari are right there with us, but we're here to try and compete, so we will do the best we can to have a real race.”
Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas was just 0.040s behind as he classified ninth.
“We struggled with the pace in both sessions and like nearly everyone else we also struggled with tyre life,” he said.
“Both of the compounds started to grain quickly and it feels like we're lacking overall grip, so the car is sliding around a lot which is then wearing the tyres.
“We don't have a definite answer why the pace isn't quite there yet; we're going to have to analyse it and look at it from every angle.”
