Ferrari pr🙈opelled itself into third in t🐽he constructors’ championship after a strong Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Italian outfit sits 13.5 points clear of McLaren with four rounds remai𝔍ning, with its recent engine upgrade seemingly tipping the b💜alance of power.

McLaren has often excelled in high-speed corners, relative to the Ferrari, and with Interlagos’ first and final sector being dependent on engine power, Leclerc pre🅷dicts the Woking squad will be ahead this weekend.

“It is ver🦋y, very close,” Leclerc said on Thursday. “We expect McLaren to be strong if anything a bit stronger than us here. We really have to focus on ourselves, try to do absolutely everything perfect until the end of the season but it’s true that we are also in a good time for the team.

“We’ve pro𝄹gressed quite 🐻well in the last five, six races which is good and we caught back the distance that was between McLaren and us. It’s looking good but we need to keep working at 100 percent.”

While the attention is on Ferrari and McLaren for the battle for third, it was AlphaTaur🎐i who was the third-best team in Mexico as Pierre Gasly finished a comfortable fourth.

Leclerc admitted that Ferrari was surprised by AlphaTauri’s 🥀pace and is sure it will be a threat again this weekend.

“They were actually very quick and we expect them to be very strong here too but it’s true that they are also a bit further behind in the teams’ championship 🥀but we try not to focus too much on others,” Leclerc added.

“I think it’s very i🅘mpor𓂃tant for us to focus on ourselves and to try and maximise our potential.”

Teammate Carlos Sainz revealed that Ferrari’s🐈 simulation tools show that McLaren is likely to be ahead this weekend but expects the margin to be no more than half a tenth of a second.

“Our numbers say so, that’s why Charles I guess mentioned it because we have our simulations and expectations from the sims and due to characteristics and all that, we put them something like half a tent🃏h in front of us, not more than that,” h൩e explained.

“Now is this simulation as pr📖ecise as telling it is half a tenth, obviously not, it could be a tenth here o🗹r a tenth there, up or down. It’s going to be tight for sure.

“I think it just m🌞akes it more exciting and obviously with the podium of Gasly🍸 here in ‘19, AlphaTauri will be in the mix and they will also be there.”