Daniel Ricciardo teammate 'absolutely livid' after F1 stunner

If Lando Norris was annoyed that his performance in F1 testing would draw too much attention to McLaren ahead of the 2022 season, he wouldn't have been impressed with Daniel Ricciardo's showing on Thursday.

Ricciardo was all smiles after a successful opening day behind the wheel of his new McLaren at pre-season testing in Barcelona.

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British teammate Lando Norris topped the timesheets after the opening day on Wednesday, and Aussie star Ricciardo followed suit by being quickest over the morning session on Thursday.

The 32-year-old eventually finished third-fastest over the whole day, with only Ferrari pacesetter Charles Leclerc and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly ahead on the timesheets.

Just as encouraging for the Australian was that he was able to put his car through 126 laps of testing, a mark bettered only on the day by Gasly's 147.

It was an impressive start for both Ferrari and McLaren, who offered the first brief glimpse that they could be more competitive this season against the dominant Mercedes and Red Bull teams.

However Norris was quick to play down expectations heading into the 2022 season, saying he was "annoyed" to be fastest on Wednesday because it means people will talk McLaren up too much.

After Ricciardo's performance on Thursday, F1 reporter Chris Medland tweeted: “Lando Norris was annoyed to be P1 yesterday because people will talk McLaren up, so he’s going to be absolutely livid at Daniel Ricciardo right now as he tops the morning session."

Daniel Ricciardo's brilliant display at F1 testing

Ricciardo finished ahead of Mercedes new boy George Russell, who noted how impressive the opposition looked and admitted his team weren't at the moment ahead of either Ferrari or McLaren.

"Some teams are looking pretty fast," he said.

"A red team and an orange team in particular look very, very competitive."

Ricciardo enjoyed mixed fortunes in his first season for McLaren, often struggling behind Norris.

The Brit was the fastest man over the first two days of testing, but also earning a tremendous victory in the Italian Grand Prix.

But Ricciardo has been in buoyant mood after a refreshing break, and reckoned he's enjoying the challenge presented by F1's new generation of cars - introduced after major changes to technical regulations designed to make racing more competitive.

"The more years you do, the less excited you are to test and the more excited you are to go racing, but it's definitely the most excited I have been in a while to go winter testing," the 32-year-old Australian said on Wednesday.

"The curiosity to see what direction teams have gone in and just visually, the cars look really cool."

Russell's teammate Lewis Hamilton had an underwhelming day, being the slowest of the 16 drivers who made it to the track.

However his efforts were curtailed somewhat by a morning red flag caused by a gearbox problem in Sergio Perez's Red Bull.

with AAP

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