Ricciardo ends second day of testing on top

The Australian's best time of 1:24.574, set in the morning with soft tyres, remained unbeaten throughout the afternoon session, when some teams seemed to focus on longer runs.

Ricciardo completed a race distance and had a very productive day with 143 laps covered.

Kimi Raikkonen's fastest time from the morning - also set on the softer Pirelli compound - was good enough for second, less than a tenth behind Ricciardo.

Williams driver Felipe Massa did improve his best time after the lunch break, the Brazilian jumping up to third place ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez, another man covering over 100 laps today in the 2014 car.

World champion Lewis Hamilton joined the action in the afternoon after having to pull out of yesterday's session, taking over from teammate Nico Rosberg, who only drove in the morning to fully recover from his neck problems for Sunday's running.

Despite only testing for half a day, Hamilton had a very busy session, completing 89 laps in the Mercedes on his way to the fifth fastest time ahead of Rosberg.

Fernando Alonso and McLaren had their best pre-season day to date, managing 59 laps despite fears about the Honda engine which forced Jenson Button to stop early yesterday.

Jolyon Palmer was eighth quickest in his debut with Lotus, ahead of the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who caused the final red flag of the day when he stopped on track near the end of the session.

Carlos Sainz also caused a stoppage when he lost control of his Toro Rosso and went off at Turn 9.