Daniel Ricciardo says McLaren can be encouraged to have split the Ferrari drivers during qualifying in Mexico in the wake of struggling during practice.
McLaren finished outside of the top 10 on Friday while Ricciardo’s preparation was disrupted by a gearbox issue that left him without much running in second practice.
But Ricciardo was able to qualify seventh at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, just 0.002s behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Charles Leclerc one spot back in eighth.
“The lap was pretty good but then in the stadium, Turn 13, I tried to get greedy and locked up the front and missed the apex,” said Ricciardo. “So that is where sixth was. Maybe the clean side of the grid and seventh is a better compromise. I will take the positive out of that.
“We split the Ferraris, which is better than both of them being in front. So I’m happy that we got that. I missed the running [in FP2] and Ferrari looked very strong. 24 hours ago we would’ve taken this result. So we will use that as our positive emotions.”
Ricciardo expressed confidence that he can beat Sainz and Leclerc in race trim.
“If around here you can manage a one-stop [strategy] it is a much quicker way to go,” he said.
“Whoever does that successfully gives him a better chance. As we saw last week, if I can get the track position on the Ferraris and even if they are a bit quicker maybe that is enough to hold them off.”
McLaren team-mate Lando Norris is set to start from 18th on the grid after taking a fresh power unit.
“I hope to be quicker than a lot of people ahead of me,” said Norris. “It is not an easy circuit to overtake on. We are not super quick either. It is going to be a tough day. But I look forward to it, it is going to be a fun one.”
