Lewis Hamilton's hopes of wrapping up his sixth drivers' world title this weekend dimmed on Friday when he languished in fifth place, far behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel after practice at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Hamilton set the pace in the morning, with a lap of 1 minute 17.327 seconds.

After topping the times in the opening session, the defending five-time champion was unable to resist the pace of his main rivals as four-time champion Vettel delivered a best lap in one minute and 16.607 seconds.

"It wasn't good enough," said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, whose team clinched an unprecedented sixth championship double last time out in Japan.

"This is a difficult track for us, but we are lacking performance. It is one of our worst tracks."

Meanwhile, Vettel said after the practice, "well, it's always tricky around here. I don't think you will ever get the great feeling because the car's moving a lot. But it was okay in the afternoon, I was able to find the rhythm, and just, yeah, chip away with it. So yeah, let's see, I think we can still improve. I think it will be very, very tight tomorrow, but this is what we want."

Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

On an overcast but warm day at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a motorsport race track in Mexico City, the outright pace of the Ferraris ruled on the main straight with Max Verstappen.

The Belgian-Dutch driver was the winner of the last two Mexican races for Red Bull. This year, he was right behind first-placed Vettel, with fellow Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc coming in third.

"The Ferraris are too fast for us," said Verstappen. "They will be too quick in qualifying. They are ahead of us all here."

Wolff admitted that it was unhelpful for Hamilton that he is without his usual race engineer Peter "Bono" Bonnington in Mexico and Austin next weekend, as he has stayed in Britain to recovery from surgery.

"It's not great, but it is what it is," he said. "Not ideal. It's tough. Rain might be a help here this weekend."

The session was supported by a big crowd and delivered plenty of incident including a 15-minute red-flagged interruption when Red Bull new boy Alex Albon lost control of his car and hit the barriers heavily at Turn Seven, severely damaging the front right section of his car.

"It was a careless moment," admitted the London-born Thai racer.

This crash wrecked his hopes of matching the time of team-mate Verstappen in the rarefied atmosphere of the sprawling Latin American city where, at 2,250-meter, cars and humans struggle to breathe easily.

Tires were also a problem for most teams as they suffered graining and high levels of wear, conditions that suggest an unpredictable contest lies ahead in Sunday's 71-lap showdown.

Hamilton, who showed strong pace in race trim in the final part of practice, has to outscore Bottas by 14 points to win his third consecutive title in Mexico City and sixth overall.

Mexican GP expects 135,000 fans with 'more women, less beer'

Organizers of this weekend's potential title-deciding Mexican Grand Prix are expecting a bumper crowd of more than 135,000 fans – including more women than ever before.

The president of event promoters CIE, Alejandro Soberon, said that the race weekend had sold out for the fifth year in succession with 30 percent more women set to attend.

"I suspect we are going to have more women – and less beer," said Soberon. "It used to be a more male-oriented thing. I think it's going to be a change of the dynamic for the future."

He added that CIE's data showed a surge of interest from women, which he credited to a Netflix series about F1.

"It's directly related to the Netflix series," he told reporters on Friday.

"They answered and commented and – at least here in Mexico – it was widely successful."

A 10-part series called 'Drive to Survive' was produced in 2018, concentrating on mid-grid teams after Mercedes and Ferrari declined to be involved.

A new series involving all the teams is under production this year.

(With input from AFP and CGTN's Sports Scene)