Ricciardo fastest on second day of testing

Published on 07 March 2018 by Mike Motilall

Daniel Ricciardo managed to keep his RB14 on P1 in the afternoon as well. He had already topped the leaderboard halfway during the day. In the afternoon, he was able to shave off well over three tenths off of his time done in the morning session; with this he drove an unofficial track record. Lewis Hamilton, who was relieved from his duties after lunch by his team mate Valtteri Bottas, finished second, followed by his Finnish team mate.

The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team can quite contently look back at the second day of testing. Because not only did Ricciardo top the leaderboard, there was also an enormous amount of laps to the name of the always smiling Ossie. Max Verstappen drove no less than 130 laps on Tuesday, but Ricciardo took it a step further and topped that amount with an astonishing 165 laps.

For McLaren it was a day not to remember. Fernando Alonso came to a standstill right before lunch due to an oil leak. The Woking based team figured they would be able to resume their schedule afterwards. But even after the final fifteen minutes of the day was upon them, it remained very quiet in the McLaren pitbox. With just several minutes remaining, the Spaniard eventually still hit the track for some laps. At Scuderia Toro Rosso, they are probably making fun of McLaren. The Honda-engine at the back of the STR13 is working like a Swiss watch and enabled the team to get 120 laps on the board.

With still five minutes remaining on the clock, Charles Leclerc triggered a very late red flag. His Sauber buried itself after a spin, deep in the gravel trap at Turn 12. The final half hour, Red Bull Racing used to practice almost a dozen pit stops. Ricciardo came in after every lap, strapped on four new tyres and continued on.

On Thursday, Max Verstappen will be back at the wheel of the RB14. He will be driving his final day of testing in the run up to the new Formula 1-season.

Pre-Season Test 2 - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Wednesday 7 March 2018

   Driver         Team                	Time            Difference  Laps
1  Ricciardo	  Red Bull Racing	1:18.047		    165	
2  Hamilton	  Mercedes	  	1:18.400	+0.353	    90	
3  Bottas	  Mercedes		1:18.560	+0.513	    85	
4  Vettel	  Ferrari		1:19.541	+1.494	    66	
5  Hartley	  Toro Rosso		1:19.823	+1.776	    119	
6  Alonso	  McLaren		1:19.856	+1.809	    57	
7  Sainz 	  Renault		1:20.042	+1.995	    88	
8  Grosjean	  Haas F1	  	1:20.237	+2.190	    78	
9  Raikkonen	  Ferrari		1:20.242	+2.195	    49	
10 Stroll	  Williams		1:20.349	+2.302	    63	
11 Hülkenberg	  Renault		1:20.758	+2.711	    102	
12 Ocon	          Force India		1:20.805	+2.758	    130	
13 Leclerc	  Sauber		1:20.918	+2.871	    160	
14 Sirotkin	  Williams		1:22.350	+4.303	    80