Ricciardo: It doesn’t happen often that you manage to climb to fourth position

Daniel Ricciardo’s fourth result in qualifying may be considered no less of a surprise than Ferrari’s front row, although the Australian initially showed fighting spirit. Yuki Tsunoda, his AlphaTauri teammate, received a penalty for replacing an engine, so during qualifying he just tried to help Daniel.

Daniel Ricciardo (4th): “I am very satisfied. The fourth result is a little higher than we expected as we made it into the top ten, although we showed good pace from the start of the weekend.

After Austin knew that the weekend in Mexico City would go as usual, we decided to experiment with the settings, so now we have a slightly different car, and it certainly suits my preferences.

Yesterday I started training cheerfully and I immediately felt confident in the car. We were in the top ten all the time and sometimes I showed better results in certain sectors of the circle.

Before qualifying, I wasn’t sure if we would make it to the finals, but I was just trying to figure out how high we could go. Well done Yuki, in the first and second sessions he let me use the slipstream, which of course allowed me to add one or two tenths, but the result in the final was achieved thanks to our own speed.

When I tried to imagine how I would do my final attempt, I thought I might get a 7th time or at best a 6th, but a 4th time is great! This is an important moment for our entire team and we can be happy because it is not often that we manage to reach such a high position.

However, the points won’t be awarded until tomorrow, and I believe we will have the chance to earn them, and a lot of them. The job is already half done, but the acceleration towards Turn 1 takes quite a long time, so you have to stay calm, take the right line and be aggressive.”

Yuki Tsunoda (15th): “First of all, the team and Daniel did a great job. We understood that I would be fined for replacing the engine, so we just tried to help our partner as much as possible.

Of course I’m disappointed because we both definitely had the chance to make it to the last session, but I’m still happy with how I performed and was able to help the team and my partner.

In practice we have mainly worked on race speed, so I am confident that we will have a fast car tomorrow. I will again make every effort and try to overtake as many competitors as possible. The characteristics of the AT04 seem to suit this track and our aim is for both cars to finish in the top ten.”