Mexican Grand Prix: Max Verstappen heads Lewis Hamilton in final practice

Red Bull's Max Verstappen headed Britain's Lewis Hamilton in final practice at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Hamilton was struggling for pace for much of the session but finally got a lap together to end up 0.075 seconds slower than the Dutchman.

Verstappen was fastest despite errors at the hairpin in the final stadium section on each of his best laps.

Hamilton will win the title if he comes fifth or better on Sunday regardless of Sebastian Vettel's result.

If the Ferrari driver wins, he needs Hamilton to be sixth or lower to keep the fight going to the penultimate race in Brazil.

If the German is second, Hamilton needs only a ninth-place finish to secure the title.

For a while in the final practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodrgiuez, Hamilton was sixth fastest and slowest of the drivers at the leading teams and apparently struggling, as the Mercedes driver has done several times this year on tracks with similar low-grip, slow-corner characteristics to this one.

But the Englishman finally got it together on his third attempt on the ultra-soft tyres as the teams did their qualifying simulation runs.

Hamilton ended the session 0.042secs ahead of Vettel, who was third ahead of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo as 0.248secs separated the top five.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest and 0.156secs off the back of the group of leading teams.

The Force Indias of local hero Sergio Perez and Frenchman Esteban Ocon were best of the rest, ahead of the Renaults of new recruit Carlos Sainz, who joined the team from Toro Rosso at the last race in the USA, and Nico Hulkenberg, the yellow cars just 0.014secs apart.

Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley impressed with 11th place in only his second grand prix, ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll.

The New Zealander's team-mate Pierre Gasly, in his third grand prix, is having a torrid time. He broke down after just one lap in this session and has done only 11 laps in total so far this weekend.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were 16th and 19th as they did no qualifying work, preferring to prepare for the race because both drivers will be at the back of the grid as a result of the latest in a series of penalties for exceeding the number of permitted engines.