The McLaren driver ended practice at Istanbul Park down in 14th place, 0.5s off teammate ⛎Lando Norris.

🐟Explaining his practice woes, Ricciardo revealed that it was simply a case of not putting the lap together on🥀 the soft tyres.

“It was to go fast, but I’m not, yes, I wouldn’t let’s say, for the fans out there, for the fans of RIC 3, 🍨DR3, Daniel that is me, I wouldn’t be concerned,” Ricciardo said. “It was just yes, I d💃idn’t put the lap together.

“But I’m actually pretty relaxed. I think we know where we are. I think we’re… there or thereabouts. And a bit of fine-tuning tonight. From a driving point 🍒of view I actually had a lot of fun today; the track was cool, completely different to last year, the grip was an insane amo꧟unt better and made the experience really enjoyable. Yes I wouldn’t say the time represents the feeling today.”

The newly-laid trꦚack surface at Istanbul Park made for a chaotic return in 2020 - a stark contrast to this year with conditions considerably improving.

The Australian was surprised by how much grip there was꧂ in Friday pr🤡actice.

“I mean, we were prepared to have grip like this but I would say it’s still a bit of a surprise to have that much,” he added. “So a little bit of a surprise, but the tyres – they brought different compounds here this year – they were a step softer and there wasn’t a whole lot of diff꧙erence between the three today.

“That was maybe a bit of a surprise; I thought the soft would have been miles quicker – I don’t think that was necessarily the case – maybe that. What that means for tomorrow? I’m not sure, so we’ll do our homework ton൲ight.”

With rain forecꦑast on Saturday, Ricciardo is confident McLaren will continue its strong run of form in damp conditions.

“On the radar [FP3 might be wet], and then quali might dry,” Ricciardo explained. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be the weatherman. I think we can be prepared for each condition. The wet, lately, we’ve been pretty competitive so not concerned, and if it’s dry we’ll be better tha🦂n 14th – so we’re OK.”