In only his second race since returning from a broken hand, Ricciardo claimed a superb fourth for AlphaTauri to secure&n🦩bsp;an unexpected spot on the second row with a lap that was just two-tenths off pole position. 

The Australian also made a strong statement by outpacing the under-pressure168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Sergio Perez at the Mexican’s home race as he looks to stake a claim to return to the Red Bull senior🌺 team. 

“I think there🅷 was dꦉefinitely a positive chip on my shoulder, I know I haven’t done much this year race-wise, but I feel a lot like my old self and I feel like I can do well,” Ricciardo told Sky. 

“So there were a lot of things that were there and 🍸it kind of brought out a lot of con🗹fidence. Even in P3 this morning, I was P9 and I wasn’t happy at all with my lap. 

“But as opposed to being frustr🀅ated with that, it gave me confidence coming into quali that we can clean it up and we’re going to be well inside the top-10.”

The result exceeded both AlphaTauri and Ricciardo’s expectations, wit🌳h the 34-year-old thinking he would be P6 or P7 with “the perfect lap”.

"It was one of those weeks where I definitely felt, already Sunday night in Austin I was wanting it to be Friday practice. I wanted to get back in the car,” Ricciardo added.&nbs𓂃p;

"I felt like there were some things left on the table and some things with setup that we knew we could try with a more conventional weekend. Some things I definitely wanted to try aౠnd had some confidence in. 

"From Lap 1 yesterda🍷y I felt really confident. P🌺4 is maybe a little more than we thought. Coming into qualy it was about how far could we get inside Q3. As a team we definitely had confidence.

"I thought maybe w💖ith the perfect lap it would be P6 or P7, not quite a P4, so it's cool.”