Jamie Chadwick believes Max Verstappen and Ferrari could still challenge at the front during Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, despite both struggling to extract the full potential of their cars in the final practice session.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 following FP3 in Mexico City, Chadwick refused to rule out Verstappen for pole battle, who finished fifth, 0.351 seconds behind session leader Lando Norris.

The Dutchman has struggled to match the pace of his rivals throughout the weekend, but Chadwick believes Red Bull's ability to recover from difficult situations could prove important heading into qualifying: "You can never write Max off and Red Bull are historically good at turning things around. As long as they have a clean session with no issues, that's the key."

However, Chadwick acknowledged that Red Bull still needs to improve its execution over a single lap: "They have a reasonably competitive package but are finding it hard to get a lap together. That will be a challenge."

Photo: Race Pictures

Chadwick identifies Ferrari's qualifying weakness

Ferrari also faces questions ahead of qualifying after Charles Leclerc failed to maintain his advantage from Friday, when he topped both practice sessions. The Monegasque finished third in FP3, just 0.117 seconds behind Norris, while teammate Lewis Hamilton ended the session sixth.

Despite Ferrari's promising pace, Chadwick pointed to the team's difficulties during the opening laps on the soft compound: "I think they can still be in the fight but it looked challenging. Both drivers, Charles in particular, those first few laps on the soft tyre is where it didn’t really happen for them. I think that’s the challenge, you have to be able to put the lap in when it counts."

Chadwick nevertheless believes Ferrari has more performance available than its final practice results suggest, keeping the Italian team firmly in contention for qualifying.