First points for Visa Cash App RB in Australia? 'Are in good shape'

Tsunoda was twice faster in the first and second free practice sessions than his teammate, driving for his own crowd in Melbourne. The Japanese recorded the fifth fastest time in FP1, followed by a P10 later in the day. In itself, it's a reasonable basis for the remainder of the weekend.

"As a first day, we’re in good shape compared to the last two races," said Tsunoda, looking a lot more satisfied. "The team did a fantastic job in terms of preparation, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously, the field is very tight in qualifying as we know, so we’ll finetune the small details, and I know those things will come and we’ll be able to put it all together tomorrow. Now it’s maximum preparation tonight, I’ll push as much as I can and hopefully, we make it to Q3!”

Ricciardo compliments his 23-year-old teammate: "I think as a team we started the morning on the front foot, and I think this afternoon, the others found a little more. I think we’re definitely still within a shot of Q3 tomorrow. There are a lot of corners where, because it’s still a street circuit obviously, you put it on the edge. I think the conditions and grip were pretty good and it was fun to get into it. There’s a little bit of work to do tonight but nothing too crazy."

Like Tsunoda, the veteran driver - who does not concern himself with criticism he recently received from Helmut Marko - thinks some fine-tuning is needed in the third free practice session. "As always, I think there’s a bit of finetuning of the car, and it should give us a good chance for tomorrow. In terms of race pace, with the little long run that we did, it seems okay. Let’s qualify in the top 10 and then it’ll all get easier from there," Ricciardo concluded.