Leclerc was asked to move over for his teammate 🐲- who was running on 12-lap fresher tyres - in a bid to close down Pierre Gasly in fourth.

Sainz was unable to do so and returned the position back to Lecle♏rc on the final lap.

Ferrari secu♋red fifth and sixth in Mexico to move back into third in the constructors’ championship, 13.5 points ahead of McLaren.

Speaking after the race, Binotto revealed that t𝓡he idea of team orders was discussed before the grand prix.

“It’s a scenario we discussed this morning during our usual strategy meeting,” Binotto said. “We knew that at some stage in the race, maybe because we made a different strategy betweenꦯ the two, one stopping early, the other one staying longer on-track, and the one staying longer would have a tyre disadvantage by the end of the race.

“So we knew that it could have been maybe an opportunity to try to catch up the driver ahead, who was Gasly. We discussed the point, we said OK, the guy stopping earlier, maybe it’s not the best time to stop. But somehow you try to, by doing that, Gasly stopped immediately after, and we tried by staying longer somehಞow to have a chance by the end of th🏅e race.

“That was on paper, and we said by doing that we would have given an adva𓆉ntage to one of the two drivers who we stopped, with the intention at least to try and catch up Gasly and then swap back if that would not have worked, and we did it.”

Binotto believes that the drivers adhering to te𝓡🐻am orders highlighted Ferrari’s “good team spirit”.

“So I think it has been a good team spirit, it has been a good team effort,” Binotto added. “It has been in the collaboration of the t⛦wo drivers, great, the way it has been managed.

“Not easy when you are s𒀰ix, seven seconds ahead to slow down so much and to swap again, to give back the position. 

“But I think they both understand the situation at the moment, so we tried whatever we could try to catch up Gasly, but when we realised it would not have been possible, we si♈mply kept to the original positions.”

Carlos Sainz saidไ it was important Ferrari gets “confident” using team orders in case it needs to again in the future.

“I think we’ve seen this to many other teams,”  Sainz༺ explained.

“What is important is that we get confident as a team to do it out of respect of the team orders, because it will happen later this season or in the following years to come, we might be in💟 a similar situation, so as teammates and the whole team, we need to get comfortable with switching positions on track like we’ve don꧅e at other races.

“I think today as a team we executed nicely.”