Ricciardo second fastest in F1 testing

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo has posted the second fastest time of the morning session on day four of Formula One testing in Spain.

Driving in the new colours of Renault, Ricciardo clocked one minute 17.785 seconds – his team’s first sub-1m 18s time of the week – on the softest and safest tyres on a cold, but sunny Thursday morning at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.

Former Red Bull driver Ricciardo’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg was due to take the Renault out for the afternoon session.

Thai driver Alexander Albon kept Toro Rosso on top of the timesheets at lunchtime on Thursday while champions Mercedes unlocked a little more pace and finally went faster than Ferrari.

British-born Albon, one of three F3 graduates making their F1 race debuts when the season starts with the Australian GP in Melbourne on March 17, lapped with a best time of 1:17.637 also on the softest tyres.

He also completed another 44 laps after an impressive 132 on Tuesday, with the Honda engine showing good gains in both performance and reliability after the problems of recent years.

Albon’s Russian teammate Daniil Kvyat had produced the fastest lap on Wednesday, a 1:17.704.

Five-times world champion Lewis Hamilton was third for Mercedes, who had said on Wednesday they planned to focus a bit more on performance, and just under the 1:18 barrier with a 1:17.977 on harder tyres than the top two.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fourth on the timesheets in 1:18.046, but on a harder compound than Hamilton.

The Monegasque did the most laps, however – his 75 before lunch comparing to Hamilton’s 58. Frenchman Romain Grosjean clocked 64 in the Ferrari-powered Haas.

Poland’s Robert Kubica was also on track for Williams, who only started testing on Wednesday afternoon, and did 48 laps.

He was still 10th and slowest, more than a second and a half off Canadian Lance Stroll for Racing Point.

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