Ricciardo fastest on first day of Pirelli rain tire test

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo posted the quickest time as Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren racked up almost 300 laps on the opening day of Pirelli's dedicated wet-tire test at the Paul Ricard Circuit in southern France.

After sprinklers covered the venue's 3.5-km track layout in recycled water, the pit lane opened at 09:00 local time, with each team carrying out 10-lap runs, separated by 10 seconds, throughout the day.

Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen and Stoffel Vandoorne were in action for their respective Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren teams, as supplier Pirelli handed out 2015-spec and prototype wet compounds.

Monday's testing went largely to plan as the trio completed 285 laps, though McLaren reserve driver Vandoorne brought out the red flags in the afternoon after stopping on track.

"We had an engine failure," he told Autosport. "The team asked me to stop the car, so that was the end of our day.

"All the teams are running last year's engines anyway. I don't know exactly how many miles were already on my Honda engine.

"We were planning to change it overnight anyway, but unfortunately it broke at the end of the day."

Ricciardo (99 laps) ended the opening day with the fastest lap, clocking a 1:08.713, four tenths ahead of Vandoorne (87 laps) and a further half a second up on Raikkonen (99 laps).

Tuesday marks the second and final day of the test, with Vandoorne again behind the wheel for McLaren, Sebastian Vettel taking over at Ferrari and Daniil Kvyat arriving at Red Bull.

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