Red Bull's resurgence has been one of the stories of the second half of the 2017 Formula 1 season, to the point where it appears to have the pace to fight for race victories on merit regularly - just as Max Verstappen successfully did in Malaysia last month.
On paper, day one in Mexico looked more promising than ever, with Daniel Ricciardo fastest on single-lap pace and the little race-run data that was produced hinting Red Bull might have the edge on race pace. But there's one huge hurdle to be cleared: how to gain track position.
The single-lap pace is all well and good, with Ricciardo just over a tenth of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton, but it would be naive to expect that to carry over into qualifying.