Verstappen Brazil pole a 'big statement' - Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo hailed a "big statement" from Max Verstappen and Red Bull after the Dutchman took pole position for the Brazilian Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel.

Verstappen topped all three qualifying segments at Interlagos, and took pole from Vettel by 0.123 seconds at the end of Q3.

The Dutchman ought to have won at Interlagos a year ago, but collided with back-marker Esteban Ocon as he was cruising in P1, and ultimately finished second behind Hamilton.

Ricciardo was, of course, his Red Bull team-mate then, but was able to watch his former colleague's efforts from the media pen, after going out in Q2 alongside Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.

After seeing Verstappen take pole, he told Ziggo Sport: "Not too bad, huh, that's fun!

"I'm still a fan of the sort 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 onboard in the second sector and it looked clean.

"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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