An encouraging day for the Australian saw him qualify just outside of the top 10 despite a lack of running in the lead-up to the all-important session.
Ricciardo was sidelined during opening practice in favour of Ayumu Iwasa as RB filled one of its two mandatory ‘young driver’ sessions for the year.
Rain later in the day limited running in Free Practice 2, leaving the eight-time grand prix winner with just Free Practice 3 to prepare for both qualifying and the race.
“Mixed emotions because I think, deep down, if we forget the scoreboard so to speak, I think it was a good session,” Ricciardo said.
“We didn’t get any dry running yesterday, so we had a few laps this morning to get into it, including a spin, and then obviously quick work to find those few tenths in quali.
“For that, I’m pleased with us being pretty much there but it’s not Q3.”
Ricciardo sat 10th in the dying seconds of Qualifying 2 as team-mate Yuki Tsunoda logged a lap 0.055s better, bumping the Australian to 11th.
Tsunoda then improved by just 0.004s in Qualifying 3, meaning the RB pairing will line up essentially as they ended Q2; 10th and 11th.
“I’ve calmed down a little bit,” Ricciardo said of his emotions following his qualifying elimination.
“Not that I was angry, just the competitor in me, of course, I knew I was P10 and when you get bumped by just a little bit…
“It would have been nice to give the guys a boost but I think honestly they all seemed pretty happy.”
Ricciardo has been under pressure to improve his Saturday performances, with Tsunoda current 4-0 in their head-to-head qualifying battle this season.
Eleventh is Ricciardo’s best grid spot of the year and marks the smallest margin to his team-mate, too.
“After yesterday to come out today and to have a strong showing, we’ve got to take that,” the 34-year-old reasoned.
“It’s obviously been a bit of a steady start to our year, so a day like this certainly isn’t a win, I’m not going to go that far, but we do see some positives in it.
“So try and hold on to those and then our race pace has been alright, so clean side of the grid tomorrow. I’ll fire myself into the Top 10 early.”
Heading into Sunday’s race, Ricciardo is targeting points.
“We’re obviously there on the cusp of points and after a good start, we will be in there, and then we will not let them go. So, points tomorrow.”
The Japanese Grand Prix begins at 15:00 AEST.
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