Friday’s two practice sessions ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix gave a few different teams, and drivers, some confidence ahead of qualifying on Saturday.
Among those? Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri. Ricciardo finished the second practice session on Friday in P6, ahead of Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes and just three-tenths of a second off Max Verstappen, who topped the timing sheets.
For Ricciardo, it was a welcome change from last weekend. The AlphaTauri driver struggled in his return to the grid following injury, a return complicated further by the Sprint format at the United States Grand Prix.
“Since the race in Austin, I’ve been hungry to keep going and get back in the car,” said Ricciardo in the team’s post-practice report.
“After last week’s race, we discovered some things that made me want to prove that we have pace. Today was a very good day. I enjoy this place, and the car was solid. From the get-go, I was certainly comfortable, and because it isn’t a Sprint weekend, we have more time to try some things.”
Historically, Ricciardo has fared well in Mexico, and despite a down season a year ago this race was one of the few where he captured points, as he finished seventh in the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix. Could he return to the points on Sunday?
The driver is confident heading into qualifying, at least.
“We continued to chip away and made good progress with our setup, and we look like we’re in a good place, so I’m confident we can carry this performance into tomorrow,” said Ricciardo. “The field is close, and you never know what other teams are doing exactly, but I know what I felt in the car today was good, and I believe it’s a top 10 car tomorrow.”
