Daniel Ricciardo felt like he had never been away after making his AlphaTauri debut although concedes he is still seeking full comfort with the car.
A red-flag period after Sergio Perez crashed his Red Bull just minutes into a first practice session for the Hungarian Grand Prix that was later hit by rain meant Ricciardo managed just seven untimed laps in the AT04 on his return to an F1 weekend.
Thankfully, FP2 was dry throughout, allowing the 34-year-old Australian to complete 30 laps, with his best time of one minute 18.385secs good enough for 14th on the timesheet, 10 places, and 0.441s behind team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
Ricciardo stated that “positions are probably not too relevant at the moment” as he attempts to acclimatise to a car that will naturally feel very different from the RB19 he drove in a recent test session at Silverstone that helped secure his return.
Reflecting on his maiden outing with AlphaTauri, Ricciardo said: “It was more just for me to feel where I am with the car, and it all felt pretty familiar
“There is a lot of outside attention but once I put the helmet on and got in the car, it all felt, in a way, like I’d never really left, so that was nice.
“In the morning [practice], we didn’t really get anything, but in the afternoon, nothing really I’m concerned about. The car felt okay. To be honest, it doesn’t feel too bad. A bit of work, but nothing crazy.
“The medium tyre was not too bad. We were kind of working away at it, and then on the soft, it was just still learning, putting a lap together.
“But in general, I got a good feeling with the car. There are things for me to work on, which I’m not too concerned about, and then some things on the car that we can just keep looking at and improving.
“Right now, I’m quite optimistic.”
Ricciardo conceded that he “felt comfortable quite quickly” but knows there is room for improvement.
“Comfortable is 95 percent but the last few percent, right now I feel I can find that (on Saturday) – at least get close to it,” he said.
“(On Friday) I didn’t quite put the lap together but I started to feel the limit of the car, so yeah, just keep it clean and I think I’ll be pretty content.”
Final practice starts at 2030 AEST (1130am BST; 1230 CET), with qualifying commencing at midnight AEST (1500 BST; 1600 CET).
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