Daniel Ricciardo put Red Bull Racing at the top of the order on the second day of Formula 1’s second pre-season test in Barcelona, Spain.

A morning soft tyre run yielded a best of 1:24.57s for the Australian, which proved enough to remain fastest for the duration.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen also set his best lap during the early running, falling just 0.01s short of Ricciardo.

“It was good,” reflected Ricciardo after focussing on medium and long runs in the afternoon.

“We wanted to get a day with a 100-plus laps on the board and we did that and more today. It was very solid,

“We also got through some pit stop practice and some good long runs, which is very positive.

“I know it’s just testing but it is encouraging seeing us on top or at least in that front group. Obviously you have no idea what everyone is doing, but it is encouraging.

“The car feels good. It has similar characteristics to RB10 in terms of how the chassis feels but that’s a good thing, as I think we had a pretty good car last year. All in all a really good day’s work.”

Mercedes-powered cars of Felipe Massa (Williams), Sergio Perez (Force India), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) completed the top six.

Hamilton and Rosberg had shared the running in the Mercedes, with the drivers suffering from a fever and back soreness respectively.

Fernando Alonso clocked up a healthy 59 laps on the way to seventh in the McLaren, despite ongoing issues with its new Honda engine package.

Reigning GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer steered the Lotus to eighth, while Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz Jr. completed the order after both bringing out the red flags during the day.

Running was brought to a halt when Sainz had an off in the Toro Rosso, while a technical fault later saw Ericsson forced to stop his Sauber on track.

A further two days of track action will complete the Barcelona test schedule.