Antonelli believes Mercedes had more potential in Mexico Qualifying

Kimi Antonelli believes "there was a little bit more" potential to come from Mercedes in Qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with the young Italian set to start sixth.

Antonelli had shown encouraging pace on Friday during practice, finishing the two sessions in second and third respectively, but come Saturday's Qualifying session, the 20-year-old dropped back in the pecking order, finishing more than half a second behind poleman Lando Norris.

"I think there was a little bit more," said Antonelli when asked if he had extracted everything from the car.

"A really scrappy Q1, just couldn't find my rhythm and it was a bit all rushed in Q2. And then Q3 was a cleaner session but I just didn't do a good enough job at the start of the session and it put me in more of an unfavourable position.

"Just a shame but still P6, close to P3, we can put on a fight.

"The start is going to be very important and hopefully from there we can gain a few places and fight for the front."

Team mate George Russell will start in front of Antonelli having qualified fourth, with reigning World Champion Max Verstappen splitting the Mercedes pair.

The Briton was left surprised to be behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton on the grid and believed that although the run to Turn 1 at the start would be crucial, other strategic opportunities might present themselves.

"The order is a little bit surprising. Ordinarily if we were behind two Ferraris we'd probably be lining up P5 or P6 on the grid," he said.

"P4 I think was a decent result and I think those three were out of reach but it was so close between me and I think Oscar [Piastri] was only one-tenth behind me and he was in P8, so glad to be on the right side of it.

"Race pace is good. I don't want to be negative but I think Turn 1, Lap 1 is going to be very important but there's still always chances.

"You've got the two Ferraris, maybe they can off-set the strategy to put pressure on the McLaren and equally, those two can't pit on the same lap so maybe I can undercut one of them. Who knows."