Ricciardo’s second outing with AlphaTauri was a tough ask as he was thrown into a sprint weekend that was impacted by rain, and with only the FP1 session in which to hone the set-up.
He made his life more difficult by losing his best time in Q1 to a track limits offence at Eau Rouge, which consigned him to 19th on the grid for Sunday’s main race.
In Saturday's sprint he was encouraged by a decent run to 10th place on a wet track.
In the dry grand prix he made some progress in the early stages but was eventually classified 16th on a day when team-mate Yuki Tsunoda impressed by battling inside the top 10 and taking the final point.
The Australian said he was missing front-end grip and ultimate performance for much of the race.
“I felt quite, let's say, limited today in terms of pace,” said Ricciardo when asked about his race by Autosport.
“I think even in clear air I was struggling a lot. Honestly, just getting the front [end], all through the middle sector, all the high speed [sections], I was just washing, washing [out].
Source: Autosport