Daniel Ricciardo believes that he and Renault made gains in Practice 2 despite that session being the more rain-interrupted of the two on Friday at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo was 11th at the end of Practice 1, the session which had more of the rare meaningful running at the Hungaroring, but was briefly second in the latter hit-out with a 1:18.597s which ultimately put him fifth on the timesheets for the session.

The rain was enough to prevent slick tyre running but not heavy enough for intermediate tyres for much of Practice 2, before most of the field cut laps in the last 20 minutes when precipitation picked up a little more.

Despite there seeming to be a dearth of meaningful dry or wet weather driving, Ricciardo felt enough from the improvements Renault made for the afternoon to be more positive about his prospects this weekend.

“The afternoon, I think even though the weather wasn’t great, I think it was a more positive afternoon, the few laps we did,” said the West Australian, who only had one soft tyre run in the session.

“I think we made some progress.

“The morning was pretty tough, so I think we made a few steps forward but we’ve still got to find a bit more there.

“There is still a bit of work to do (overnight) but I think we have a bit more confidence with what we had this afternoon, and it’s the last (round) before summer, so let’s get it.”

Practice 3 starts tonight at 2000 AEST, then Qualifying at 2300 AEST.