Daniel Ricciardo was delighted after securing fourth on the grid with Renault for the Canadian Grand Prix,
The Australian would beat Pierre Gasly on pure pace while also capitalising on errors by Red Bull and Valtteri Bottas to give the French manufacturer their best qualifying result since Suzuka 2010.
Following what has been a tricky settling in period at Renault since the start of the season, Ricciardo acknowledged this was the first really significant result he has achieved.
“I never thought I’d be so happy for a fourth place in qualifying; it feels like a pole position!" he declared afterwards.
"It was so cool when they told me over the radio I was fourth. I’m really happy for the team today.
“We've got three Q3s in a row now, but a fourth is massive. I think just over a tenth from third. I still don't really know where this speed came from - I mean I do, but we didn't expect it to equate to a fourth place," he said.
“It's good, making progress, and personally I guess each weekend I'm in the car, I'm feeling more and more at home with them and learning to get on top of it. It's all starting to come together quite nicely.”
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The big task now is to try and maintain the lofty starting position for as long as possible but Ricciardo may actually be looking ahead when he looks at the blast to Turn 1 on Sunday.
“I'm pretty confident we'll be OK tomorrow," he said of the race potential.
"The group we're in, it's hard to say obviously, I'm surrounded by a few quicker cars but on the soft tyre, maybe we could be in the top three in the start if the cars in front start on the mediums.
“You never know what's going to happen. I think once the pace settles, the top teams will probably stretch it out a little bit, but we'll try and remain inside the top four, top five, and get some points that we maybe missed out on in Monaco," he concluded.
