The Mexican enjoyed one of his strongest Friday’s of the season as he ended the day fastest in second practice at the Circuit of the Americas ahead of Lando No𒅌rris.

Lewis Hamilton would have topped FP2 had it not been for exceeding track limits, but it was still an encouragi🐟ng performance by Perez whose lap was only a tenth shy of Hamilton’s deleted effort.

Reflecting on Friday practice in Austin, Perez said: “Yeah it was a goo♍d day. Obviously, it’s going to very tight. It’s all about tomorrow, Saturday, trying to put it all together and trying to find those couple of tenths that could put us in the mix for pole to🐼morrow.

“It was a promising FP2 but there’s a lot to be done to try and improve the car. I also feel that there’s some margin to still improve our long-run pac♈e. All in all it’s a positive Friday but we will see tomorrow where we end up.”

Perez wasn’t entirely happy with his pace in the race simulations, noting his poor tyr🔯e degradation.

“It ꧑felt OK but I wasn’t very happy with my tyre deg so I think there’s room to improve there and tr🐬y to find a bit more pace through there,” Perez added.

“They [Mercedes] were certainly very 💮strong today. We will see what they have for tomorrow.”

Red Bull hasn’t won the US 𓂃Grand Prix since 2013 with Sebastian Vettel.