Daniel Ricciardo pipped his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to pole in Mexico, but with less than three hundredths of a second.
In doing so, he denied the Dutchman the record of becoming the youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history. Ricciardo had not topped a session all weekend until Q3, but the Aussie knew that the performance was in his RB14.
“I knew it was there somewhere,” Ricciardo said. – We hadn’t the cleanest run through practice and I just knew putting a lap together would be crucial as always. “I knew the pace was in the car. Max showed that all weekend. So I just knew it was about putting together a clean lap at the end.
I am still convinced it was not the cleanest. But once I heard I got pole, I have got to relax a little. I am tripping major nut sack right now. That one makes it special as well and you know.” he admitted.
It is the first front row lock-out for Red Bull in the turbo hybrid era, with their last 1-2 in qualifying coming back in Austin in 2013.
Verstappen labelled his qualifying as “crap”: “The whole qualifying was crap. Same problems from P2, engine braking not how I want to, rear-locking the car. We tried to make the best of it. And I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had, but it’s still good to be second. I’ll drive around the problems tomorrow.”
0.026 seconds…
That’s all that separated @danielricciardo and @Max33Verstappen in qualifying, and it was the Aussie who ruled ???#MexicoGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/ON9ni0TMJ9
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 27, 2018
