The Australian, one of the stars of the previous race in Monaco, was fifth quickest in second practice on Friday over six tenths of a second behind the quickest Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, second fastest.

Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen was fourth, just 0.012s quicker.

Despite the gap to Ferrari, Ricciardo is confident there is more to come from Red Bull, although he reckons taking the fight to Mercedes is out of the question.

"I think tomorrow we can be close to them," said Ricciardo. "I think we will fight with them [Ferrari] for P3.

"With what we had today I don't think it was possible but I believe we will do some good work tonight and that will give us a chance to fight again with them tomorrow.

"I don't think I put the perfect lap together today. I expect a bit more from me and a bit more from the set-up tomorrow and that should put us closer to Mercedes and Ferrari.

"With the right lap I think we can be ahead of them [Ferrari]."

"Gain a big chunk"

Ricciardo said Red Bull was yet to turn up it engine.

"Today we didn't run qualification mode, there is still more to come tomorrow, so far it seems okay, tomorrow we will see a bit more of a step.

"Then closer than a second behind the Mercedes hopefully we can gain a big chunk – hopefully it will put us closer to Ferrari but let's see."

Verstappen agreed that Ferrari had looked stronger today.

"They look a bit better pace wise," he said. "We still need to do some work, everybody wants to improve.

"We have to see tomorrow. For sure we have to improve but I would say it is a positive thing."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble

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