Ricciardo fastest as Ferrari racks up the miles

Daniel Ricciardo ended Thursday morning’s Formula 1 pre-season test session in Spain fastest from Carlos Sainz.

Ricciardo rose to the top late in the four-hour outing, Sainz having sat atop the timesheets for much of the morning.

The Ferrari driver recorded 71 laps, in doing so taking his team’s total distance thus far in the test beyond the 1000 km marker – the first team to do so.

Sainz was the busiest of the 10 drivers in action, followed by Esteban Ocon who recorded 66 laps and Mick Schumacher with 65.

Schumacher’s morning more than doubled the distance Haas has recorded in the test to date – more than 300km on Thursday morning versus 243km throughout Wednesday.

Sergio Perez triggered the first red flag of the test when he rolled to a halt at Turn 13 with an apparent gearbox issue.

His Red Bull was quickly retrieved and the session resumed, the Mexican ending it eighth fastest with 38 laps to his name.

Valtteri Bottas was delayed slightly from making his entry onto the circuit this morning, though for the second day running was limited for Alfa Romeo Sauber.

The Finn recorded a total of 21 laps, the least of anyone, with his squad’s total mileage just 248 km – still less than a grand prix distance.

Testing continues at 14:00 local time, midnight AEDT.