Daniel Ricciardo sets a new track record in morning session

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo set a new unofficial lap record to lead the mid-way point of the sixth day of Formula One’s pre-season tests.

Daniel Ricciardo sets a new track record in morning session
Daniel Ricciardo sets the new lap record on Wednesday afternoon

Ricciardo’s RB14 hit the track shortly after 1.00 p.m. on day two of the second test with the hyper-soft tyre (the newest and softest compound in Pirelli’s range) to set a 1:18.047. That beat the previous record of 1:18.339 set by Felipe Massa in 2008 using 2009-spec slick tyres .

It was almost three tenths faster than Felipe Massa’s effort in 2008, which had previously stood as the fastest lap of this configuration of the Spanish Grand Prix circuit.

It was known that Red Bull and Mercedes both used Pirelli’s new hypersoft tyre for the first time. Both their drivers took the first two spots with Ricciardo-1:18.047 for Red Bull clinched the first spot and Hamilton-1:18.400 for Mercedes claims second spot on the tally.

Wednesday’s main story so far was offered by McLaren’s Fernando Alonso when the Spaniard stopped on the track.

Fernando Alonso was forced to park the car midway through the morning due to oil leak. Although the leak was not directly engine related but McLaren made the decision to change the car’s power unit meaning Alonso will have to wait several hours before returning to the Circuit de Catalunya circuit for what is scheduled to be his penultimate day in the car.

“This is not engine related,” racing director Eric Boullier said. “This is a small oil leak we had to the car which unfortunately meant the engine died, so we have to change the engine now. They want to obviously inspect the engine before putting some more miles on it. It’s going to be another three hours.”

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