Ricciardo shows promising Belgian GP race pace

Ricciardo was only 14th fastest at the end of Free Practice 2, more than 1.5s off the pace of Lando Norris.

It was a similar story to Free Practice 1, with a near identical gap to the top of the timesheets.

But while that highlighted a lack of single-lap pace, it masked a long run that has given the team cause for optimism heading into Sunday.

“It’s nice to drive here,” Ricciardo began.

“They resurfaced a lot of the track, so a lot of corners have a lot more grip now, which feels good.

“Today was a proper test day for us,” he added.

“We tried lots of things, and I was happier in FP2, but we still need to find a few more tenths for tomorrow.”

According to Alan Permane, the team’s sporting director, some of those gains will be found from a more settled rear end.

“We’ve got some work to do to find some more rear grip, so we’ll be working in the simulator overnight with several set-up items to test out, with a view to trying those on the car in FP3,” he explained.

“On a positive note, Daniel’s long run pace was not only quick, but had very low degradation.

“We have much more confidence in our long run pace than our short run pace and we’ll be aiming to improve that for tomorrow.”

While Friday’s running has put Ricciardo and RB in a positive window heading into the race, it must first navigate its way through a potentially wet qualifying session.

Forecasts predict an increasing chance of rain as Saturday wears on, peaking at nearly 80 percent at the start of the qualifying hour.

“Sunday looks dry, so at least we got some understanding today,” Ricciardo reasoned.

“If it’s a dry race, we are comfortable with where we are and with what we learned today.

“But if quali’s wet, and that’s the only wet session… these ones, they’re always exciting – you don’t have much time to figure it out and find the grid.

“The new asphalt in some places on track, is that going to be gripper in the wet? Is it going to be more slippery?

“It’s a challenge for all of us, but we’ve all driven around Spa before in the wet, because it always rains here!”

Final practice in Belgium begins on Saturday at 12:30 local time (20:30 AEST) ahead of qualifying at 16:00 (midnight AEST).