Vasseur: We have the advantage to be under the radar

Following a one-two finish last weekend in Texas, the Italian team trail defending F1 champions Red Bull by only eight points and are 40 points behind leaders McLaren.

With Sainz starting ahead of Red Bull's championship leader Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris, and with Charles Leclerc in fourth, Ferrari are the only title contender with both cars inside the top 10 for Sunday's race.

Vasseur told Sky Sports television: "We have the advantage of being under the radar. The discussion is more about the fight between Lando and Max, between (McLaren boss) Zak (Brown) and (Red Bull boss) Christian (Horner), between Mercedes and I don’t know who – and for me it's perfect."

Sainz, who will leave Ferrari for Williams at the end of the season and is out of the 2024 F1 title reckoning, lapped with a best time of 1:15.946 seconds.

The Spaniard, who claimed his sixth F1 career pole position in Qualifying on Saturday, said he knew how important it was for Ferrari's hopes to keep scoring maximum points: "It's our number one priority.

"First of all, to bring both cars home, but especially if you win the race, those extra seven, eight points that you get when you win are important for the team in the Constructors.

"I'll be just looking forward to keep that P1 into Turn 1, and from there, hopefully our race pace should be good enough to win it," added Sainz.

Vasseur added in the Ferrari report from Qualifying in Mexico: "The whole team is in a dynamic mood, feeling plenty of energy after Austin and here we were much more focussed on tomorrow as we did not expect to get pole, so this is a nice and unexpected surprise.

"Carlos did a very good job with his two laps being good enough for pole and even though Charles was not very happy with his lap, he is just a couple of thousandths behind Lando (Norris).He also has done a good job, especially considering he didn’t try the Softs before this morning’s FP3.

"It's very important that we are in the fight with both cars: it’s a very long run down to Turn 1 after the start and it’s not a given that you keep your grid position, so here in Mexico anything can happen and having both cars fighting at the front offers us more opportunities.

"It will be a very long race and the most important thing will be to have good pace on the long stint, run a good strategy and execute the race perfectly," added the Ferrari boss.