Perez: It is just not coming together

In stark contrast, his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, the 2024 Formula 1 championship leader, bagged a front-row slot, emphasising the gulf in performance between the two.

Perez will hope to last longer on Sunday than in 2023 when he collided at the first corner and retired after 90 seconds, but he arrived at the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit needing a strong showing and it has yet to materialise. He was 10th, ninth and 14th respectively in the three practice sessions.

"Here is the worst place to not perform, I am super disappointed," Perez told reporters, "The Grand Prix where I wanted to do the best possible job, it is just not coming together.

"I hope in the race we can enter the points. I need to try and maximise the day, it is going to be very hard but I owe these fans, they are the best in the world, this is the best race in the world," declared the veteran.

The winner of six races and twice on the podium in Mexico City with Red Bull, Perez started the season strongly, with three-second places and a third in the first five races, but his form has nose-dived since Miami in May with increasing speculation that his 2025 contract might prove meaningless.

While Verstappen has won seven races and scored 354 points, Perez has taken just 150 and Red Bull could lose second place in the constructors' championship to Ferrari on Sunday with Carlos Sainz on pole for the Italians and Charles Leclerc fourth.

Perez reported he had suffered similar brake issues to the previous two races in Singapore and Austin: "Into the low speed I cannot brake or stop the car and as soon as I attack the braking I start sliding and locking up.

"So that is my main issue and where I am struggling the most, here it showed even more. I am having to modulate the braking too much and just don’t have confidence in the car," Perez explained.