Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo is full of confidence following an 'encouraging' Friday ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix – an event he won last year.
The Australian was second fastest in opening practice, just 0.035s shy of Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and then topped second practice by 0.069s to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
Following victory in China a fortnight ago, Ricciardo headed to Baku motivated for another win and although he's refusing to play up his and Red Bull's chances come Sunday, he couldn't find fault with their showing in practice.
"I was very happy today," he declared. "With a street circuit you need confidence in yourself and in the car. The car was well behaved and didn’t take any confidence away from me.
Friday's Azerbaijan GP results: First practice (FP1) | Second practice (FP2)
"There was a good relationship with myself and the car so we will build on that tomorrow. I think we can still find a little bit more but generally I was happy and I think it’s going to be quite a close battle tomorrow and Sunday."
Although cautious that Red Bull's rivals will 'turn it up' on Saturday, Ricciardo believes they have the pace to fight on race day.
"The car feels really strong through the castle section in the second sector and I felt comfortable and confident there," he said.
"It’s a very tight part of the circuit but that’s the place that I felt most comfortable and the RB14 felt strong. I’m sure the others will turn it up a bit in qualifying and gain in sectors one and three but sector two will be the key for us.
"The step in grip between the tyre compounds is pretty consistent and fairly linear so no real surprises there. I do remember last year on the Friday both our cars were very quick and we didn’t quite have the same pace in qualifying, so I’m not going to play it up or anything, but this was all we could ask for today.
"It is encouraging even if we don’t qualify on the front row tomorrow as I think the race car will be very strong. We are still in the group of favourites."
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