The Australian bounced back after a difficult opening hour of running earlier in the day to catapult himself into contention for a Q3 berth come qualifying.
His best lap was just under six-tenths off the outright pace set by McLaren’s Lando Norris, and well over a second clear of team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.
“It felt good,” Ricciardo said of his car balance.
“I would say all of FP2 was solid. My soft lap was good up until the last sector but in general the session went well.
“Low fuel, high fuel, I was pretty happy and comfortable with the car.
“So yeah, fine tune it tonight but I would say, compared to where we were this morning, there’s a lot less work to do tonight.”
RB headed into the Hungarian Grand Prix looking to put to rest concerns that remained from its Spanish GP upgrade package.
That has seen the squad use a mixture of new and older parts, in addition to a minor ducting upgrade.
“It’s one of those… It’s just practice, but I feel like we had a Friday that we needed and we’re looking for,” the 35-year-old said.
“Normally, when we have these Fridays, it sets up a good weekend.”
Serving that optimism is a combination of Ricciardo’s Free Practice 2 result but also the work completed to get him there following Free Practice 1.
He was only 12th fastest in that session, close to nine-tenths shy of the top of the timesheets and three-tenths behind Tsunoda.
It suggests a net three-tenth gain between the sessions, which translated to four places.
“I wasn’t that happy with where we were with the car and the feeling,” Ricciardo said of his opening practice hour.
“I felt like we had quite a bit of work to do, so work we did, and I was much happier in FP2
“Okay, tomorrow’s a new day but I’m very, very happy with where we ended today in terms of balance, feeling, and obviously classification.
“We’re in the fight, so we’ll keep it rolling for tomorrow.”
A final hour of practice remains in Hungary ahead of qualifying at 16:00 local time (midnight AEST).
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