Daniel Ricciardo says Red Bull is already "pretty close" to perfecting its set-up for the Austrian Grand Prix after an encouraging opening day of practice in Spielberg.
The Red Bull Ring has been an unhappy homecoming for the team since returning to the calendar in 2014, but Ricciardo finished Friday afternoon in fifth position. In the last two years the power-hungry circuit has punished Red Bull's Renault engine but Ricciardo seemed to waste little time getting up to speed during the opening day.
"We got up to speed pretty quickly, that was important," he said. "It's been a track where we've struggled a bit in the past. I felt pretty comfortable from lap one. We're more or less there. I don't think we're going to be here until midnight to find a setup, we're pretty close to where we need to be. That's a good start."
The second practice session was delayed by heavy rain mid-way through the afternoon, something forecast to continue intermittently through the weekend. Though Ricciardo hopes that is the case he is also encouraged by how much stronger Red Bull looked in the dry.
"Yes if it comes like that [on Sunday] it will be very interesting. The rain was so local, it came really hard in Turn 8 and 9, and in the race you get to that part of the track first, before the others, you could be really unlucky, but that could make it exciting.
"I think the wet weather sort of evens it out a bit, we know our chassis is good so normally you rely on the chassis more in the wet so it could sort of get us closer. But I think in any case we're better here in dry conditions than we were last year."