F1 young driver test: Ricciardo stays on top for STR on day two

The Australian was conducting an unofficial audition for a Red Bull 2014 seat in the afternoon, but despite several runs he could only get within two tenths of a second of his best Toro Rosso effort of 1m32.972 set before lunch.

He also faced the embarrassment of running off the track in to the gravel at Luffield early on during his afternoon running for Red Bull while he got used to his new surroundings.

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Ricciardo's best lap time in the Red Bull was in the end only good enough for third fastest, with Carlos Sainz Jr. doing a good job on his first outing in an F1 car to set the second fastest time.

The Spaniard ended up just 0.044 seconds adrift of Ricciardo.

Behind the Red Bull and Toro Rosso drivers, Davide Valsecchi completed a programme of aerodynamic and tyre evaluation work to set the fourth fastest time, as he completed his first full day of testing for Lotus.

His induction with Lotus got off to an amusing start earlier in the day when, with his radio not working, he failed to notice for several laps that his team's pit board was indicating him to return to the garage.

This resulted in more and more desperate measures from the pit wall to get him to abort his running - until eventually an extra large makeshift 'IN' sign was finally noticed.

Oliver Turvey continued McLaren's testing programme with the fifth fastest time, while James Calado was sixth overall as he continued to learn about the Force India and help push on with the Silverstone-based team's development work.

"It was fantastic," Calado told AUTOSPORT. "Just amazing - and a fantastic opportunity. It was my dream to just get a go.

"Yesterday was more about me getting used to the sheer animal that is an F1 car, while today was more of a proper test - working on set-up and trying some things that will hopefully help."

Antonio Felix da Costa's best time from the morning, as he completed his day-and-a-half of testing before handing over to Ricciardo, was good enough for seventh overall, ahead of Davide Rigon in the Ferrari and Pastor Maldonado in the Williams.

Nico Hulkenberg completed an afternoon of tyre work for Sauber in a bid to get a better indication of the impact the new 2012 construction Pirellis will have on his team's performance. The German was 10th fastest overall with a best lap of 1m34.224s.

Will Stevens completed his first day of testing in an F1 car with the 13th fastest time for Caterham.

As well as Ricciardo's red flag, there were two other session stoppages. Robin Frijns ran off the track at Luffield just before midday during his morning of running for Sauber, while action was suspended an hour later due to debris on track.

Today's times:

Pos Driver                  Team            Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Daniel Ricciardo        Toro Rosso      1m32.972s           48
 2. Carlos Sainz Jr.        Toro Rosso      1m33.016s  +0.044s  39
 3. Daniel Ricciardo        Red Bull        1m33.187s  +0.215s  59
 4. Davide Valsecchi        Lotus           1m33.554s  +0.582s  91
 5. Oliver Turvey           McLaren         1m33.864s  +0.892s  97
 6. James Calado            Force India     1m33.957s  +0.985s  47
 7. Antonio Felix da Costa  Red Bull        1m33.958s  +0.986s  19
 8. Davide Rigon            Ferrari         1m34.053s  +1.081s  97
 9. Pastor Maldonado        Williams        1m34.116s  +1.144s  71
10. Nico Hulkenberg         Sauber          1m34.224s  +1.252s  52
11. Daniel Juncadella       Williams        1m34.631s  +1.659s  33
12. Robin Frijns            Sauber          1m34.731s  +1.759s  17
13. Will Stevens            Caterham        1m36.082s  +3.110s  98
14. Paul di Resta           Force India     1m36.356s  +3.384s  41
15. Rodolfo Gonzalez        Marussia        1m37.949s  +4.977s  92