Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen showed great pace during the Mexico City race, but their hopes of challenging Mercedes had effectively been dashed by a poor qualifying performance.

Both drivers lost too much time recovering through the field to be able to properly challenge the race-winning Mercedes team.

Following investigations in to what happened on Saturday, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene claimed the issue was a repeat of the troubles seen at events like Spain and Monaco – where its pace falls away when track conditions suddenly get hotter.

"It is the endemic problem that we have all year long," said Arrivabene, when asked by Motorsport.com about what went wrong in qualifying.

"You remember in Baku, Spain and Monaco – when the temperature is going up to the sky, normally we are going to have problems.

"We are making an analysis on that and now it is quite clear the reason why – so we are working on that."

Although the end result in Mexico did not go Ferrari's way, Arrivabene said he took heart from the fact that Ferrari had continued to show improvement in form at this stage of the season.

"I think the most important thing is that the team is reacting really well," he said. "I am not happy because we were not winning the race, but today we demonstrate the character of the team and on top, that something is moving and this for me is something important.

"The guys – I am receiving via radio all the communication, which is the reason why sometimes I am going mad because I am hearing everybody – everybody, they were doing their job, concentrated.

"The guys on the pit stop were perfect, not incredibly quick but perfect in the way they were doing what we asked them to do. And the team demonstrated that they were fighters. This is what I am asking for."

Arrivabene also had high praise for the way that Raikkonen recovered from needing a second pitstop.

"He make an overtake on Hulkenberg that was unbelievable," he said. "In my opinion it was class. Pure class."