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Daniel Ricciardo says his upgraded Red Bull felt like a B-spec Formula 1 car after setting the pace in both Friday practice sessions for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo came within a few hundredths of a second of breaking the Hungaroring lap record as he led the way in free practice.

Red Bull was expecting to challenge Ferrari and Mercedes at the Budapest track, which has a low power demand and places more emphasis on chassis and aerodynamic performance.

A "significant" upgraded brought to Hungary includes changes to the sidepods, floor, mirrors and the front wing.

"Today it certainly behaved more like a B[-spec]," Ricciardo said. "Obviously, this morning looked strong out of the box.

"We were the first ones on the green track and basically we kept good pace, even the long runs were strong - and this afternoon we were able to replicate that with a hotter track.

"We brought some updates here and they seem to be working. I do feel like we have gained some grip in the car.

"We have stepped in the right direction.

"This is a track that suits us as well, so if we can extract every bit out of the car, we may have a shot at actually fighting for big points this weekend.

"I am pretty happy and I genuinely feel we can stay at the pointy end tomorrow."

While Ricciardo was happy with the RB13 from the very start of running, team-mate Max Verstappen found the balance to be "all over the place" and spent much of the day trying to improve the situation.

"The first practice I was just not happy with the balance," he recalled.

"So we were all over the place, changing a lot of parts and could not get the lap together, not happy with the car."

Verstappen was almost seven tenths down on Ricciardo in FP1 and half a second off in FP2, but the Dutchman says the result in the afternoon was not representative of his true pace.

"We changed a lot of parts on the car for second practice and then it was all looking good - but then I got interrupted with red flags, so I couldn't do a proper run on super soft.

"The sector times are there so we are there, not on the timing, but for tomorrow it is looking good."