Daniel Ricciardo is anticipating a closely-fought duel with rivals Ferrari and Mercedes in qualifying on Saturday after topping the opening two practice sessions in Monaco.

The Red Bull driver set a record-breaking pace around the Principality as he led home team-mate Max Verstappen in both sessions to outline the team as a serious challenger for victory this weekend.

Although the Austrian outfit held a comfortable four-tenth buffer over its closest challengers, Ricciardo is taking nothing for granted from Red Bull’s performance in practice and expects a resurgence from both teams.

“It is going to tighten up on Saturday but all we can do today is try and top it and we did,” Ricciardo told reporters on Friday. “It’s a good start, both cars are strong.

“We topped the sessions, so for now we have done all we can. We can find a bit more but we are more or less there and Saturday afternoon is going to be very close. We have a day off and I am sure Ferrari and Mercedes will start to put pressure on us.”

The Australian scored his one and only career pole position to date at the circuit in 2016, with his sights set firmly on repeating the feat this year.

“Our long run looked decent. It is not everything around here, but we seem to good in all conditions at the moment,” he added.

“[Pole position] is the target. The intention this weekend was to try and win – and be dominant. Today is good. It is a good start.”