Daniel Ricciardo says he plans to get his “elbows out” on the opening lap of the Mexico City Grand Prix but admits he will not go “too crazy” from fourth place on the grid.
Having been sidelined since the end of August with a broken bone in his hand, Ricciardo encountered a “miserable” return outing in the United States last weekend.
However, the Australian was competitive throughout practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, leaving him confident on Friday that a top-10 start was possible.
After utilising a slipstream from team-mate Yuki Tsunoda to comfortably advance into Q3, Ricciardo then proceeded to secure his best qualifying result since Italy 2021.
“It’s just cool to be that far up the grid again. It’s been a while,” he beamed. “I’m going to guess it’s probably Monza or something last time in 2021, sometime in 2021 I was on the second row of the grid. It’s cool.
“There’s part of me which for the next hour wants to celebrate today, because it’s certainly a day that should be celebrated. I think the team as well, it’s not often they qualify this far up the grid, especially this year.
“But I don’t think the car we had this weekend is a P10 in the Constructors’ car. It’s definitely been a more competitive car.
“I’m just glad I got the most out of it. Next hour we’ll enjoy, but then definitely focus on tomorrow and try to turn this into a [haul of] points.”
Ricciardo was able to split the two Red Bulls, beating Sergio Perez to the second row.
The eight-time grand prix winner has openly discussed his main ambition is now to return to the Red Bull seat he vacated at the end of 2018, in place of the under-pressure Perez.
Asked about the significance of outqualifying the Mexican, Ricciardo said: “Look, it’s cool. I got asked, oh you’re ahead of Checo tomorrow, how does that feel? I mean, it feels cool, but I’m ahead of a lot of people.”
Last weekend, Ricciardo conceded that he was caught out by race rust at the start of both the Sprint encounter and Sunday’s grand prix on his comeback appearance.
Ricciardo has revealed that he intends to adopt a moderately aggressive approach on the long approach to Turn 1 on Sunday to avoid losing ground to the pack behind.
“Lap 1, get your elbows out but nothing too crazy, let’s say,” he said. “It’s one of those ones, you can be too conservative and you’re fourth, and into Turn 1 you’re ninth or something. You get eaten up pretty quick.
“I think the nice thing being towards the front is that you normally stay a bit more out of the chaos. Obviously the mid-pack gets a little crazy, so that should help our cause in getting a bit through the first few corners a bit cleaner.
“You still have to race pretty hard to not get eaten up. I’m experienced, hopefully I use my head tomorrow and we’ll be good.”
While Ricciardo is wary of the top teams having more pace in hand over the duration of a race stint, he retains optimism that AlphaTauri can fight at the sharp end.
Pressed on whether the AT04 will have the speed to remain in fourth, Ricciardo answered: “Part of me kind of says why not? Because yeah, as I said today was genuine pace, and all weekend it felt like if I’d put the lap together, it was like a top six car.
“By default, you kind of expect the top teams to have a little bit more race pace, whatever it is, maybe even tyre management. Part of me also says why not, why we can’t fight at the front tomorrow.”
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