Lewis Hamilton admitted his Mercedes had been ‘a bit of a nightmare to drive’ after he qualified sixth for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished second in last weekend’s United States Grand Prix before being disqualified for running an illegal floor on his car.

But the impressive performance shown by his Mercedes hasn’t been replicated so far this weekend in Mexico City.

Hamilton qualified in sixth on Saturday with his team-mate George Russell in eighth during an unpredictable session in which Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz locked out the front row.

‘I have been struggling all weekend with this car. The car has been a bit of a nightmare to drive. It just doesn’t like this track,’ Hamilton told Sky Sports.

Lewis Hamilton admitted his Mercedes had been ‘a bit of a nightmare to drive’ in Mexico

The British driver will start Sunday’s Mexico Grand Prix from sixth on the grid

‘We made some good changes going into qualifying. I was much happier with the car. I wish we had done it in the morning.

‘Q1 and Q2 wasn’t looking too bad. Q2, the second lap was great but the car is just really peaky – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and I just wasn’t able to extract much more from it in the end.

‘In a perfect world, I could have been fifth but that’s about it.’

Hamilton pulled out a best lap of 1:17.454 to move above Russell and take sixth on the grid, with leader Leclerc not too much quicker on 1:17.166.

World champion Max Verstappen was third in his Red Bull with a lap of 1:17.263. Daniel Ricciardo sprung a surprise in his AlphaTauri by qualifying fourth with home hero Perez in fifth.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff spoke about the wafer-thin margins seen in Q3.

‘What you see is the margins are so fine. The Ferraris came out of nowhere,’ he told Sky.

Hamilton described his car as ‘peaky’ on the Mexico City circuit but it had improved

Charles Leclerc earned pole at the Mexican Grand Prix, his second consecutive pole position

‘It’s about getting the out-laps right. Two or three seconds slower or faster and suddenly you have a decent lap time.

‘It’s almost incalculable. The tyres are so fragile and the ones that bring it to the point are just quick.

‘The Ferraris jumped massively from Q2 to Q3. Both of them had a fantastic sector one because they got the out-laps right.

‘We were maybe a tiny bit too slow, a little bit cold and that’s why the times didn’t come together. But we are talking fine margins, it’s two-tenths.’