Ricciardo has his day at Silverstone

Toro Rosso driver Daniel Ricciardo stole all the headlines following Thursday’s Formula One test day at Silverstone.

The Australian pulled a double shift driving all day as part of the Pirelli tyre test. During the morning he ran 48 laps setting the fastest time of the day for Toro Rosso with a time of 1minute 32.972 seconds.

During the afternoon he switched cars as he took his first official audition for the Red Bull drive next season.

With fellow Australian Mark Webber announcing his retirement from Formula One, Ricciardo is one of three drivers currently being linked with a seat alongside triple Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel. The other two are Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne and 2007 F1 World Champ Kimi Raikkonen.

To say it didn’t go completely to plan for Ricciardo would be a fair assessment, as after just seven laps he managed to beach himself in the gravel on the outside of Luffield.

He did recover and eventually ran 59 laps, but he never matched his morning time for Toro Rosso, setting the third fastest time of the day 0.215 seconds off his own pace.

Interestingly Red Bull development driver Carlos Sainz Jr in his first taste of Formula One set the second fastest time of the day for Toro Rosso and he will also get a chance in a Red Bull today.

?It was good today but very busy, so it?s still a bit of a blur, I did quite a few laps this afternoon, so I?m happy with that. I had a small off but otherwise it was a trouble-free day. The off was my mistake, I just lost the rear on the entry.’ Ricciardo told formula1.com.

‘It was a good opportunity to get behind the wheel and experience two different beasts today. In terms of the inevitable speculation, I think this test is something for Red Bull to look at, but there?s still the rest of the season with Toro Rosso to do, so I?ll switch my focus back to that and won?t get too caught up in any rumours.?