Daniel Ricciardo showed impressive pace on the second day of the second pre-season test to put his Red Bull RB11 top with a 1:24.574.
However the times at the top were close with Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen just a hundredth of a second behind, whilst Williams’ Felipe Massa was third fastest ahead of Sergio Perez in the 2014 Force India.
Ricciardo straight from the off, posting a quick lap in the morning before settling into a race simulation in the afternoon to complete a total of 136 laps.
But it was Mercedes that completed the most at 155, split between Nico Rosberg’s morning session and Lewis Hamilton’s afternoon. Both drivers seemingly recovering from their respective illnesses over night.
Hamilton was fifth fastest, just three tenths down on Ricciardo which looks even more ominous when you consider his time was set on the slower medium, whilst all those ahead were on the faster soft tyre.
Fernando Alonso enjoyed McLaren’s most successful day yet. Although the Spaniard was over a second off the pace, he completed 56 laps in the MP4-30 with much of the difference down to Honda running with our ERS until a permanent fix for a faulty seal is found on Saturday.
Jolyon Palmer made his Lotus debut and went eighth fastest ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz Jr.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 01. | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:24.574 | 143 | |
| 02. | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:24.584 | 0.010 | 90 |
| 03. | F. Massa | Williams | 1:24.672 | 0.098 | 88 |
| 04. | S. Perez | Force India* | 1:24.702 | 0.128 | 121 |
| 05. | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:24.923 | 0.349 | 89 |
| 06. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:25.556 | 0.982 | 66 |
| 07. | F. Alonso | McLaren | 1:25.961 | 1.387 | 59 |
| 08. | J. Palmer | Lotus | 1:26.280 | 1.706 | 77 |
| 09. | M. Ericsson | Sauber | 1:27.344 | 2.770 | 113 |
| 10. | C. Sainz Jr | Toro Rosso | 1:28.945 | 4.371 | 100 |
*Running 2014 car
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