Fernando Alonso launched his Malaysia Grand Prix from the back of the grid thanks to a 45-place penalty but held nothing back in another great drive which brought him all the way up to P7.
The remarkable result, coupled with Jenson Button's own top 10 finish, further validated McLaren-Honda's finish although the Spanish driver insisted there was still a way to go to level with the top tier of the grid.
"Things went well today," Alonso said.
"I was a bit lucky with the last Virtual Safety Car because we could do the final tyre change without losing places.
"Also, at the start, I managed to avoid all the cars but I couldn’t see much because Rosberg was spinning and there was a lot of smoke. With all that going on we managed to gain quite a few positions during the first lap."
McLaren had split its tyre strategies but every stop was executed perfectly its crew.
"Our plan was very aggressive, as we were going to use all new sets of tyres we had saved in qualifying.
"But once we saw ourselves so high up we had a few doubts and started to think about doing something more traditional to end up in 9th or 10th place, which was already good for us.
"In the end we decided to go on the attack and everything went our way."
Still, Alonso offered a reminder that McLaren-Honda was still a work in progress with much improvement still necessary before aiming for an outright win.
"I’m happy but there’s still a lot of work to do. We keep improving but the six faster cars are still very far ahead.
"Seventh is the best we can hope for at the moment but we have to push all the time. Vettel and Hamilton hit trouble, I finished 7th so that would have been 9th in normal conditions.
"So there’s no reason to start ringing the church bells because of this result."
FULL REPORT: Ricciardo wins in Malaysia as Hamilton retires from lead
Breakfast with... Gianni Morbidelli
Silbermann says ... Bugged by Liberty
Romain Grosjean exclusive column: Haas can build momentum for 2017
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted that the squad has no regrets about its…
On this day in 1989, Williams' Thierry Boutsen secured his second F1 win when he…
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner hailed Max Verstappen’s sensational Sao Paulo Grand Prix victory…
Carlos Sainz was left scratching his head after a disastrous Sunday at the Sao Paulo…
Fernando Alonso braved both physical agony and mechanical challenges in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix,…
Alpine’s remarkable double podium at the São Paulo Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon and Pierre…