'One of the best Fridays I've had' – Antonelli optimistic after strong Friday showing ahead of Mexico City GP

Kimi Antonelli praised his practice running ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix as "probably one of the best Fridays I've had in a long time" after finishing towards the top of the times in both one-hour sessions.

The Mercedes driver was only just over one-tenth off the outright pace in both sessions, finishing second and third respectively at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The Italian has found form in the last few races after a difficult mid-season spell, a run of three points finishes only coming to an end in Austin after a collision with Carlos Sainz, with the Williams driver set to serve a five-place grid penalty in Mexico for the incident.

"Was a decent Friday, probably one of the best Fridays I've had in a long time," said Antonelli, who suffered a brief engine issue in FP2 but which was quickly rectified in the garage.

"I think FP1 was great, FP2 was a little bit worse. We tried some set-up changes and in some way improved the car, in other ways made it a bit worse. A lot of data that we can get from these two sessions and looking forward to tomorrow."

He added: "Pace looks to be good but of course tomorrow is going to be another day, track is going to evolve and it's going to be important to evolve as well with the track with the driving and the car. We'll do our best."

Team mate George Russell missed FP1 as most teams ran rookie drivers, the Briton's spot taken by Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti but leaving him the chance to go incognito in the grandstands.

"One thing when you're an F1 driver is you can't watch F1," said Russell. "It's rare you get the chance to go out and I thought I'll try and do something semi normal and didn't get recognised too much."

Once back in the cockpit for FP2, Russell was able to finish sixth and just over four-tenths behind pacesetter Max Verstappen, but warned that the margins remain close across all 20 cars, making Qualifying difficult to manage especially around one of the shortest tracks on the calendar.

"Traffic in Q1, Q2 is going to be an issue, same for everybody," he said.

"You can't take too much margin because the gaps are so close and obviously in Q1, the back cars are often going two or three sets of new tyres and if you want to get to Q3 with two sets, you can't be throwing tyres at it. It's never straightforward."