Ricciardo on AlphaTauri pace in Mexico: It was no fluke

After securing fourth place on the grid for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo said he would allow himself an hour of celebration before focusing on turning Saturday’s qualifying results into points.

Ricciardo was just 0.216 seconds off Charles Leclerc’s pole position time and outqualified Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who could only manage fifth place behind the Australian.

The result is all the more significant as Ricciardo, who drives for Red Bull’s AlphaTauri junior team this year, has made it clear he wants to take Perez’s seat at Red Bull when the Mexican’s contract expires at the end of 2024.

“Look, it’s cool,” Ricciardo said when explained what it means to overqualify Perez. “I’ve been asked, oh, you’re ahead of Checo tomorrow, how does that feel? I mean, that’s cool, but I’m ahead of a lot of people.”

He added: “There’s a part of me that wants to celebrate today for the next hour, because it’s definitely a day that should be celebrated. I think the team does too, it’s not often that ‘she qualifies so high on the grid, especially this year.

“I’m just happy to have made the most of it. We’ll enjoy the next hour, but then let’s definitely focus on tomorrow and try to turn this into a bag of points.”

Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix will be Ricciardo’s second race at AlphaTauri since he broke a bone in his hand during testing for the Dutch Grand Prix in August. He said he didn’t expect to get such a high position on the grid, but he believes the car’s performance is genuine.

“Obviously fourth place is amazing, but when you look at pole it was two tenths away, it’s not like Max or anyone was seven or eight tenths later,” Ricciardo added. “So the gap is as cool as the position, if you know what I mean.

“We’re really there, and who knows what that means for tomorrow? I don’t think today was a fluke. I definitely feel like we had a good rhythm.

“I felt like I had a perfect lap, looking back at it in my head last night I was thinking maybe today we could be P6, P7 if everything goes well. I was definitely convinced that we weren’t just a P10 car. But P4, that’s pretty cool.”

Ricciardo said he had a breakthrough with the car’s settings during the free practice session in which he broke his hand at Zandvoort and only now was he able to reap the rewards.

“We made some [setup] I already made changes at Zandvoort for P2, that session where we crashed and those few laps I did, I remember that with the hard tires we were competitive and I felt good, it “That’s where we should start with the adjustments,” he said.

“But with Austin last week, we didn’t really have enough knowledge with just one practice session. [due to the sprint format]so you kind of have to run with what you bring.

“I was very excited to come this weekend and try it and see how it felt. I think with my driving style and where I am with the car, it’s the steering that Made me feel a little more confident.” The car has already been good for me, I felt good in it. It just made me lean on it a little more.”