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).

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Laps
1.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1m38.102s	77
2.	Jerome D’Ambrosio	Renault	1m38.802s	83
3.	Sam Bird	Mercedes	1m39.220s	82
4.	Gary Paffett	McLaren	1m39.760s	84
5.	Jules Bianchi	Ferrari	1m39.916s	93
6.	Sergio Perez	Sauber	1m40.543s	91
7.	Paul di Resta	Force India	1m40.901s	27
8.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1m40.944s	81
9.	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1m40.974s	61
10.	Yelmer Buurman	Force India	1m41.178s	67
11.	Davide Valsecchi	Hispania	1m43.013s	32
12.	Luiz Razia	Virgin	1m43.525s	70
13.	Josef Kral	Hispania	1m44.143s	61
14.	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Lotus	1m44.312s	41
15.	Vladimir Arabadzhiev	Lotus	1m45.723s	49