Ricciardo hoping to split the Ferraris

The Australian, who was third quickest in the opening practice session, believes the chasing pack behind Mercedes is very tight.

Although Ricciardo admits it will be hard to topple Ferrari, he is feeling more optimistic given how competitive his team has been so far today.

"I think it was decent," said Ricciardo of his day. "We started off, I think we are on the right foot. There is nothing massively with the car that feels out of shape.

"So, I think we are more or less there where we need to be. Besides Mercedes it is pretty close.

"I think Ferrari obviously still have the edge but with a perfect qualifying, we can maybe try to split them.

"Don't get me wrong, to get in front of Ferrari will still be quite an effort but anything can happen around here, it is not impossible.

"We should be ahead of the Williams at least. Toro Rosso look quick again, but we should be alright."

The Red Bull driver concedes the low track temperatures were making things tricky today, and he is hoping for warmer weather on Saturday.

"Tyre warm up with the cold today was pretty poor, so hopefully a bit more sun comes up on Saturday to help us otherwise qualifying might be a few laps to get it going.

"The soft was taking a while. Even this morning a lot of the guys, even us after 10 laps, the times were still coming down. Maybe in qualifying we put 50kg and drive around the whole session it might help us."