Red Bull Formula 1 boss Christian Horner says Daniel Ricciardo’s lap to claim pole position for th𒈔e Mexican Grand Prix “came from n🌳owhere”.

Max Verstappen looked favourite for pole having set the pace across all three prꦰactice sessions and topped the timesheet๊s after the opening runs in Q3, but Ricciardo turned in a sublime lap late on to pip his teammate by just 0.026s.

It marked Red Bull’s first front-row lockout of the V6 hyrbrid era which began iꦕn 2014.

“Where did that lap come from? It was mighty,” Horneꦰr told Sky Sports F1. “He’s been a couple of tenths off all weekend and then suddenly on that last set of tyres, boom!

“It was just absolutely 🥀perfect. Second and third sectorꦺ he just nailed it. It sort of came from nowhere really!

“You could hear how happy he was on the slow down lap so really pleased for him. After his bad luck, I’mꦛ so happy for him.”

Verstappen blamed a braking problem in his Red Bull car for a “crap” qualifying result, and Horner said h🌄e can understand his driver’s frustrations given he missed out🍸 on the chance to become F1’s youngest ever polesitter.

“Realistically this was probably the best and only chanceඣ for Max to take that record so he is going to be feeling that,” Horner explained.

“But to have two Red Bull cars on the front-row, our first time since Austin since 201ꦓ3, for the team it’s just phenomenal.

“You know, they have the same car, same opportunity. Daniel did the better job i🍎n 💎Q3 and he deserves the pole. All credit to him.”

Horner be🦄lieves the result vindicates Red Bull’s decision to take engine penalties earlier in the season to ensure it had a trouble-free weekend in Mexico, a race it had long targeted as being winnable.

“I said coming to this event, this altitude of race brings the engines closer within the bracket of Mercedes and Ferrari,” he༒ said.

“We’ve got a great car, we’ve got great drivers, an🏅d it’s been well executed today. We just need to try and convert it into a big result tomorrow.”