Ricciardo ends productive day on top

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

This morning the second day of winter testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona kicked off under a mix of clouds and sun. As the lights turned green, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were the first men on track.

Despite a nek injury, Nico Rosberg, who announced that he and his wife are expecting a baby girl in August, got in his Mercedes for a full day of testing as Lewis Hamilton is still out sick. Rosberg isn't the only new face on day two as Fernando Alonso is joining the action in the McLaren, Marcus Ericsson takes over from Felipe Nasr at Sauber, Felipe Massa takes the wheel of the Williams and Jolyon Palmer, the reserve driver of Lotus, will get a taste of the new E23.

An hour into the day's running, only four drivers had set lap times, and only two of them were at anything close to racing speed. Williams's Felipe Massa leads the way, followed by Sergio Perez in the 2014 Force India, whose new car is not ready yet. Marcus Ericsson of Sauber and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg are the only other two men to do two consecutive laps. The other have been out, but focusing on either systems checks or, in the case of McLaren and Fernando Alonso, aerodynamic calibration work.

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Unlike the first day at Barcelona, today proved to be an uneventful day as there hasn't been a single interruption yet. As the drivers retired for their lunch break, Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest lap time of the week: 1:24:574. The Australian was followed by Kimi Raikkonen (1:24:584) and Sergio Perez (1:24:702).

As testing resumed this afternoon, The Mercedes team decided to take Nico Rosberg out of the car to ensure his injured neck is not over-stressed and is fit for a full day's running on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton, who had to retire as he was feeling sick yesterday, got behind the wheel for the afternoon session.

As the Red Bull Racing F1 Team continued their day of testing with a race simulation, which brought out both Christian Horner and Adrian Newey to watch the team's progress, the session was halted by a red flag as Carlos Sainz Jr. went off in turn Nine.

Less than ten minutes after the red flag, the drivers could once again take the track to continue an extensive day of testing. The weather forecast predicts rain tomorrow, so the teams want to get the most out of the track time today. Both Red Bull and and Mercedes managed to do over 100 laps by 16h30 in the afternoon.

As most of the teams concentrated on longer runs this afternoon, the times didn't really improve. Felipe Massa however took a spot in the top 3 on the soft tyres with a time of 1:24.672.

During the last hour of the day, Marcus Ericsson stopped his Sauber in the start-finish straight. The session was once again red flagged and as the car was stopped so close to the pits, the session could resume with half an hour on the clock.

The day came to a close with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo still on top of the time sheets. The Australian was followed by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Williams' Felipe Massa.

Testing at Barcelona will continue tomorrow.