Ricciardo tops first morning of Barcelona F1 testing

Daniel Ricciardo put Red Bull on top in the first morning of Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona, beating Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas by just under two tenths of a second.

Nico Hulkenberg, Renault Sport F1 Team RS18

Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL33, in the gravel after losing a wheel

Nico Hulkenberg, Renault Sport F1 Team RS18, aero sensors

Ricciardo's best time of 1m20.179s - set on medium tyres - came in the dying stages of the four-hour session, and minutes after Bottas had knocked Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen off the top of the timesheets.

Raikkonen led going into the final half-hour of running, having just deposed Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg with a 1m20.506s on softs, before Bottas took over with a 1m20.349s with 10 minutes left.

Ricciardo's last-minute effort knocked Raikkonen down to third place, while Hulkenberg remained fourth, 0.368s back, having racked up the most laps of the morning of any driver with 73.

That was one lap more than Brendon Hartley managed in the Honda-powered Toro Rosso, which ended the morning with the fifth-fastest time, albeit 2.192s off the pace.

Lance Stroll was sixth for Williams, ahead of Haas driver Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren, which managed the least laps of any team in the morning.

Alonso caused the first red flag of the day when a "wheel-nut issue" resulted in the MCL33 losing its right-rear wheel and becoming beached in the gravel at the final corner in the first hour.

The Spaniard spent the next three hours in the garage before finally reemerging with less than 15 minutes remaining of the session, but only managed another four laps on top of the six he did before the incident. His best time was four seconds off the pace.

Causing the only other red flag of the session was Force India development driver Nikita Mazepin, who suffered a spin at Turn 4 during the VJM11's first morning of running.

Mazepin ended up at the bottom of the timesheets in 10th place, behind the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson and a little over five seconds off the pace.

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:20.179		60
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:20.349	+0.170	58
3.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:20.506	+0.327	59
4.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:20.547	+0.368	73
5.	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:22.371	+2.192	72
6.	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:22.452	+2.273	46
7.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:23.092	+2.913	32
8.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:24.202	+4.023	10
9.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:24.897	+4.718	41
10.	Nikita Mazepin	Force India	1:25.628	+5.449	22