Mercedes duo, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, are anticipating gains after a difficult Friday at the Mexican Grand Prix.

At what has become one of the weakest circuits for the German manufacturer on the calendar, expectations were already low, particularly given the strength of Ferrari in recent races.

However, Hamilton would end the day almost a second off the pace set by Sebastian Vettel in fifth after a scruffy qualifying run and admits the key to improvement lies in one area. 

“It’s pretty useless here with the tyres, it feels like we’re going to be doing a three or four-stop race,” he said. “This place is so aggressive on the tyres.

“It was cooler this morning and then a bit warmer in FP2 and from the short runs to the long runs it’s just hard to pinpoint exactly how to get these tyres working. But that’s the name of the game."

“I think we’re not massively far off the Red Bulls but the Ferraris, they just keep turning up their engine down the straights and the difference between us and them is massive," Hamilton admitted.

“This afternoon I struggled a bit more with the tyres and the lap wasn’t spectacular, so there’s more to come for sure.

“Valtteri was three tenths up the road but I’ll try and figure that out to pull it out for tomorrow.”

Also Read:

• Hamilton & Bottas ignore title talk as Mercedes eye Mexico improvement
• Mercedes sees 'no reason' for Hamilton to leave after 2020
• Verstappen: No way of stopping Ferrari before the race in Mexico

For Bottas, the day wasn't much better, as highlighted by a spin entering the stadium in the afternoon, but the Finn isn't giving up just yet.

“It [the gap]’s bigger than we expected at this point of the weekend, but we know we can find some gains,” he said.

“We know that we have quite a big deficit on the straight lines compared to Ferrari, so even qualifying on the front row it would be tricky to maintain the lead into Turn 1.

“We’ll try to do the best in both, but in the end, as we’ve seen, it’s always the Sunday that matters. We’ve been strong on Sundays, so hopefully this weekend too."