INTERNATIONAL: Mexican Red Bull driver Sergio “Checo” Perez hopes to put on a good show for adoring fans as F1 gears up for race this weekend. He says he is sure Red Bull wants him to win his home Mexico City Grand Prix after facing questions on Thursday about whether they would let him beat championship-leading team mate Max Verstappen.

Verstappen is 12 points clear of Mercedes' seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton with five races remaining, including Sunday's, in one of the closest title battles in years. The only Mexican on the starting grid is out of title contention but has won twice in the past year. He has also stood on the podium in his last two races and has never been closer to his dream of becoming the first Mexican to win at home.

Red Bull have won nine races this season, Verstappen taking eight of them with Perez triumphant in Azerbaijan in June after the Dutch 24-year-old crashed out with a tyre failure while leading. Hamilton says he considered the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez "a Red Bull track", even if Mercedes could still be strong.

^{PHOTO: FORMULA ONE DRIVERS ARRIVING TO THE PADDOCKS AHEAD OF MEXICO GRAND PRIX / SOUNDBITES FROM DRIVERS INCLUDING MAX VERSTAPPEN, LEWIS HAMILTON AND SERGIO PEREZ}