Sebast🌞ian Vettel remained coy about Ferrari's alleged pace advantage in Mexico following Friday's practice running, saying the margins between the top three teams remained "very close".

Japan pole-sitte🔴r Vettel set the pace through Free Practice 2 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodri🐷guez, edging out Red Bull's Max Verstappen by one-tenth of a second as Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc ended the day third.

Verstappen and⭕ the Mercedes duo of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton all talked up Ferrari's advantage after Friday. 🧸The trio claimed it would be difficult to compete with Vettel and Leclerc in qualifying given the Ferrari car's strength in a straight line.

Vettel refused to get ahead of himself when recapಌping his Fri♚day, saying there was still room for Ferrari to improve.

"Charles and I split the work today," Vettel said. "I did most of the work on the Medium tyre, which was ok. We don’t look that bad🐓, but I don’t have the full picture yet. I did only two laps on new Softs so it’s 𒀰difficult to say, but I don’t think I had the worst tyre today for the long runs.

"However th🐲ere are still some areas where we can improve tomorrow in terms of the general 🧸balance and the feeling I have with the car. Max looks strong, but all the three top teams are very close, so let’s see what tomorrow brings."

Leclerc had a more mixed day of running in Mexico, struggling more through FP2 and ending his session with🅰 a big spin at Turn 7 that he managed to save before the car hit the wall.

"For me, FP1 was good while FP2 turned✃ out to be more tricky. I struggled a bit with the car balance and there are still some improvements I want to make in my driv♈ing," Leclerc said.

"In general, the grip is rather poo꧃r on this track ♍because we find ourselves at such a high altitude and the downforce is not as efficient as it is at other tracks.

"To win this🌱 race, you have to get a good start and keep the lead well into Turn 1. Being behind someone is a disadvantage here because of the cooling issues everyone faces, so having a strong qualifying result will be a key factor.

"Our competitors are strong and we will ♉see where we really stand tomorrow,♑ but we are confident of our potential and ready to give it our all once again."