Verstappen pole is a 'big statement' says Ricciardo

Max Verstappen made a "big statement" by beating both Ferrari and Mercedes to qualify on pole position for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, according to his former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo, now with Renault, was knocked out in Saturday's Q2 session and was left to watch the final shootout from the paddock where he told reporters how impressed he was with the Dutchman's scintillating lap.

"Not too bad, huh?" he said.

"That's fun! I'm still a fan of the sport so watching here it's exciting. I want to be out there, but if I can't be out there, I'm going to be a fan for 10 minutes.

"It's never perfect, but it looked clean. They showed a bit of his on-board in the second sector and it looked clean.

"It's a big statement for them to do it here in Brazil. I know he more or less won the race last year, but on one lap that's a big performance."
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"And they, sort of, had a reasonably comfortable margin. So, it's an interesting thing, but not anything you could draw any solid conclusions from."
"Just the fact that people have mentioned it, it's already an honour, but it's not been something that I've been chasing in my life."