Ricciardo elected not to complete a soft tyre run in Free Practice 2 on Friday afternoon, leaving him well down the order as a result.

However, he remains confident there is sufficient pace in his RB to propel him into the top 10 come Saturday afternoon’s all-important session.

“We definitely have some pace in hand,” Ricciardo said following second practice.

“The timesheets don’t probably show the full picture for our performance today, I think we’re actually looking alright.

“I feel good being back here, it was just nice to be driving in F1 around here again.

“Happy with the work we made today and I think some softs [tyres] tomorrow and we can definitely be fighting, hopefully, well inside that top 10.”

The front of the field looked especially condensed following Free Practice 2, which was headed be Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Lewis Hamilton was second fastest ahead of Fernando Alonso, with Mgrown ax Verstappen fourth and Lando Norris fifth to make for five different teams in the top five spots.

Despite that, Ricciardo is optimistic, having  as he grew in comfort and confidence as the opening day of track action in Monaco wore on.

“Within myself, I felt like I got into a better rhythm towards the end of the session,” he explained.

“That’s what today’s for, obviously building up to the limit.

“But I was happy with the last lap I did on the medium and I think, all things considered, we’re in a good place.

“Obviously, I can always find a bit more out of myself, but it’s really just putting the set-up together and probably merging both cars and making a beautiful sweet concoction of fast lap time goodness.”

It leaves Ricciardo, who started on pole in Monaco in 2016 and 2018, looking forward to what he suggests is the most exciting session of the season.

“Tomorrow is one of the coolest days in F1 – it probably is the coolest on the calendar,” he suggested.

“Saturdays in Monaco. It’s fun. It’s good.

“I’m excited to go full beans and dance on the limit.

“Really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Qualifying in Monaco begins at 16:00 local time (midnight AEST).