Daniel Ricciardo dominates the morning in Barcelona

The second day of the Barcelona test in Spain began with a smooth session, where only the Australian Daniel Ricciardo experienced a problem at the very start of the session, stopping at the end of the pitlane before being brought back to the stroller by his mechanics. An alert which ultimately did not prevent the pilot from Red Bull RB11 to be the fastest at the end of the morning in 1’24″574 on soft tires, half a second faster than the best performance achieved yesterday by Pastor Maldonado's Lotus.

Kimi Räikkönen is Ricciardo's closest pursuer. The pilot Ferrari places its SF15-T ten thousandths behind the Red Bull and ahead Sergio Pérez's Force India, the Mexican being the last driver below the 1’25 per lap mark, 128 thousandths behind the leader.

Behind this trio, it is the Mercedes W06 Hybrid from Nico Rosberg who leads the rest of the peloton. 4th, more than nine tenths behind Ricciardo, the German showed himself the most diligent on the track this morning with 65 laps. Fernando Alonso did not encounter any major problems on the McLaren-Honda, victim yesterday of an MGU-K problem, and takes 5th place ahead of the Williams by Felipe Massa. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), Jolyon Palmer (Lotus) and Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) complete the ranking.

Mid-day ranking Friday:

1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull): 1’24”574? 62 rounds
2. Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari): 1’24”584 – 46
3. Sergio Pérez (Force India): 1’24”702 – 44
4. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes): 1’25”556 – 65
5. Fernando Alonso (McLaren): 1’26”387 – 28
6. Felipe Massa (Williams): 1’26”927 – 47
7. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber): 1’27”344 – 58
8. Jolyon Palmer (Lotus): 1’28”128 – 31
9. Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso): 1’28”945 – 41