Ricciardo leads Algarve test

The Red Bull-backed Carlin driver, who can secure the title this weekend, has been battling illness in the past couple of weeks. He set the second fastest time in the morning session, 0.153s adrift of Hitech Racing rival Renger van der Zande, but found over a second during this afternoon's running to set a 1m38.121s best and finish the test on top of the timesheet. Both sessions were frequently interrupted by red flags.

"I've been feeling a bit sick to be honest, but in the car it seems to be fine," said Ricciardo. "We found a bit with the car this afternoon and the wind changed direction a bit too, which helped through the key corners.

"This morning we had a bit of fine tuning to do with the car for the afternoon session and it went pretty well in that direction. We've got a little bit more to do, but we're very close to getting there. The track's cool, the weather's nice, it's all fine."

By contrast, van der Zande only found 0.075s between sessions and wound up with the fourth fastest time. He dropped behind F3 Euro Series frontrunner Valtteri Bottas (ART) and Ricciardo's Carlin team-mate Max Chilton, who set second and third fastest times respectively this afternoon. Bottas topped the times briefly, but ultimately lost out to Ricciardo by 0.270s with Chilton a further three tenths back.

Euro Series points leader Jules Bianchi (ART) was the last driver to lap below 1m39s in fifth, while Manor Motorsport's Roberto Merhi rounded out the top six, just ahead of Double R's Carlos Huertas, who got blocked on his best flying lap.

Reigning Formula BMW Europe champion Esteban Gutierrez set the eighth fastest time to make it three ART cars in the top 10, while Ricciardo's main title rival Walter Grubmuller (Hitech), who struggled badly to 14th this morning, improved to ninth this afternoon on what he described as a "tough track."

This is a make-or-break weekend for the Austrian, who must beat Ricciardo to keep his championship hopes alive, so he will need to find more speed to stay in the race.

Huertas's Japanese Double R team-mate Daisuke Nakajima completed the top 10, just clear of Fortec's Riki Christodoulou, while series returnee Sam Bird (Fortec) and T-Sport's Adriano Buzaid found their running hampered by engine issues and wound up 12th and 13th.

Buzaid's T-Sport team-mate Gabriel Dias comfortably set the pace in the National Class, 20th overall and half a second clear of champion-elect Daniel McKenzie (Fortec).

Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin          D/V  1m38.121s
 2.  Valtteri Bottas       ART             D/M  1m38.391s
 3.  Max Chilton           Carlin          D/V  1m38.701s
 4.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech          D/M  1m38.902s
 5.  Jules Bianchi         ART             D/M  1m38.972s
 6.  Roberto Merhi         Manor           D/M  1m39.082s
 7.  Carlos Huertas        Double R        D/M  1m39.143s
 8.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART             D/M  1m39.147s
 9.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech          D/M  1m39.250s
10.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R        D/M  1m39.253s
11.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec          D/M  1m39.384s
12.  Sam Bird              Fortec          D/M  1m39.442s
13.  Adriano Buzaid        T-Sport         D/V  1m39.685s
14.  Victor Garcia         Fortec          D/M  1m39.803s
15.  Wayne Boyd            T-Sport         D/V  1m39.855s
16.  Henry Arundel         Carlin          D/V  1m39.913s
17.  Philip Major          Carlin          D/V  1m39.955s
18.  Hywel Lloyd           CF              D/H  1m40.150s
19.  Pedro Enrique         Manor           D/M  1m40.184s
20.   Gabriel Dias         T-Sport         D/H  1m40.249s
21.  Adrien Tambay         ART             D/M  1m40.288s
22.  Stephane Richelmi     Barazi-Epsilon  D/M  1m40.603s
23.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed       M/H  1m40.676s
24.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec          D/H  1m40.794s
25.  Kevin Chen            Double R        D/M  1m42.214s
26.  Mathieu Maurage       West-Tec        D/H  1m42.407s
27.  Joe Ghanem            Carlin          D/H  1m43.179s
28.  Max Snegirev          West-Tec        D/H  1m43.460s
29.  Satrio Hermanto       Litespeed       S/H  1m43.931s
30.  Victor Correa         Litespeed       S/H  1m46.401s