Ricciardo tops second rookie F1 test day

Daniel Ricciardo finished the rookie Formula One test at Abu Dhabi as the fastest man, pedaling his Red Bull Racing RB6 to the top of the timesheets.

The West Australian’s fastest time was a staggering 1.3s faster than new world champion Sebastian Vettel’s pole position lap that he set on Saturday evening.

Ricciardo drove Mark Webber’s old RB6 chassis – the car that Webber won the Hungarian Grand Prix in.

It was only Ricciardo’s fourth full-day testing an F1 car.

Renault’s Jerome D’Ambrosio set the second-fastest time in the closing stages of the day. D’Ambrosio drove for the Virgin team yesterday before he switched into the Renault, finishing seven tenths of a second off Ricciardo’s time.

Mercedes driver Sam Bird was third ahead of Gary Paffett (McLaren) who was returning to the cockpit of an F1 car for the first time since February in place of junior driver Oliver Turvey.

Fifth went to Ferrari tester Jules Bianchi from F1 debutant Sergio Perez (Sauber), Paul di Resta (Force India) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams), who switched from HRT.

Making their F1 debuts were Davide Valsecchi (HRT), GP2 driver Luiz Razia (Virgin), Josef Kral (HRT) and Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Lotus).