After securing fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo mentioned he would enable himself an hour of celebration earlier than specializing in turning Saturday’s qualifying end result into factors.

Ricciardo was simply 0.216s off Charles Leclerc’s pole place time and outqualified Crimson Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who might solely handle fifth place behind the Australian.

The end result carries further significance as Ricciardo, driving for Crimson Bull’s junior workforce AlphaTauri this yr, has made it clear that he needs to take Perez’s seat at Crimson Bull when the Mexican’s contract expires on the finish of 2024.

“Look, it is cool,” Ricciardo mentioned when pushed on what it means to outqualify Perez. “I obtained requested, oh you are forward of Checo tomorrow, how does that really feel? I imply, it feels cool, however I am forward of lots of people.”

He added: “There’s a part of me which for the subsequent hour needs to have fun as we speak, as a result of it is definitely a day that needs to be celebrated. I believe the workforce as nicely, it is not typically they qualify this far up the grid, particularly this yr.

“I am simply glad I obtained probably the most out of it. Subsequent hour we’ll take pleasure in, however then undoubtedly concentrate on tomorrow and attempt to flip this right into a bag of factors.”

Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix will probably be Ricciardo’s second race again at AlphaTauri since he broke a bone in his hand throughout follow for the Dutch Grand Prix in August. He mentioned he hadn’t anticipated to safe such a excessive grid place, however believes the automobile’s efficiency is real.

“Clearly P4 is superb, however then once you take a look at pole, it was two-tenths, it is not like Max or somebody was seven or eight-tenths down the street,” Ricciardo added. “So the hole is simply as cool because the place, if you already know what I imply.

“We’re actually there, and who is aware of what it means for tomorrow? I do not really feel as we speak was a fluke. I actually really feel like we had sturdy tempo.

“I felt with an ideal lap, going by it in my head final night time, I assumed possibly as we speak we might be P6, P7 if all the things goes nicely. I undoubtedly had confidence we weren’t only a P10 automobile. However P4 is fairly cool.”

Ricciardo mentioned he made a breakthrough with the automobile’s setup throughout the follow session through which he broke his hand at Zandvoort and solely now has he been in a position to reap the rewards.

“We made some [setup] adjustments already in Zandvoort for P2, that session the place we crashed, and people few laps I did, I bear in mind on the onerous tyre we have been aggressive and I truly felt alright, that is the course we must always begin going with setup,” he mentioned.

“However then with Austin final week, we did not actually have sufficient information on it with just one follow session [due to the sprint format], so that you form of need to race what you carry.

“I used to be very excited to come back into this weekend, strive it and see what it felt like. I believe with my driving type and the place I am at with the automobile, it was the course that made me really feel a bit bit extra assured. Already the automobile has been good to me, I felt good in it. This simply made me lean on it a bit more durable.”