Monaco Grand Prix: Red Bull can stay ahead of Mercedes - Ricciardo

The Australian dominated Thursday afternoon's second practice session, finishing 0.606 seconds clear of his closest challenger, Lewis Hamilton.

Ricciardo knows Mercedes will increase its power output for qualifying on Sunday, but is still confident he can fight Hamilton and championship leader Nico Rosberg for victory.

When asked if he can be quicker than Mercedes over the rest of the weekend, Ricciardo said: "I think we can.

"It's just a case of if Mercedes did a few little gains today. Hopefully they didn't.

"I know they always have a little bit more for qualifying, I know they're able to get a bit more power out of the engine on Saturday afternoon.

"Even though I don't think it's six tenths, I expect qualifying to really close up.

"Today I'm happy but not getting too excited.

"I definitely have confidence around here, it's a good feeling to be in the 1m14s on this track.

"Today we're quick. I'll be surprised if we can keep that gap in qualifying but I'm looking forward to it, Saturday's going to be good fun."

Ricciardo is running Red Bull's version of the updated Renault engine, and acknowledges that it is a step forward, even around Monaco.

"We'll have a look now and see how much, it's not six tenths I know that much," he said of Renault's gains.

"But I'm sure it's a little bit. It's between one and two tenths at the moment.

"The chassis is good, it's working now and we've found some good time in the second session.

"I knew it could be better, this morning, we found most of that.

"There's still a little bit more to find for Saturday, but obviously we're looking pretty good.

"If the weather stays the same, we won't change too many things."