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The Australian scraped through into the final segment of the three-part qualifying hour after Sergio Perez failed to improve on his final lap in Qualifying 2.
Having progressed, Ricciardo had just a single set of tyres available, opting to use them at the death.
That saw him record the ninth-best time in the session, two places back from team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
“Someone told me it’s the actual, as far as real qualifyings go, it’s my first Q3 since Mexico, which is a relief but it was also kind of sad,” he confessed.
“But I’m happy. I’m happy as a collective for the team. Obviously both of us in Q3 is very good.
“Am I happy to still be missing a few tents? No, obviously.
“But how the weekend was going, we did make progress, so that’s promising.”
Ricciardo started the weekend almost eight-tenths back from Tsunoda on Friday, the Japanese driver third best in Free Practice 2 while Ricciardo was only 11th.
In Saturday’s final practice, Ricciardo was a tenth faster, before Tsunoda starred again in qualifying.
“Maybe he’s driving here and his road car every day,” Ricciardo joked of his team-mate, who lives in nearby Faenza.
“He was really quick from the start. Obviously great credit to him, he was driving well all weekend.
“I felt good in the second and third sector,” he added of his own performance.
“[It was] Just the first sector I was really struggling with the high speed changes of direction.
“Qualifying is done, but I’m still going to have a long look tonight and see what I was missing because that was getting me really all weekend.”
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix begins at 15:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 AEST).
