Ricciardo wing ding halts test

DANIEL Ricciardo is upbeat about the start of his Renault journey despite his second stint in the car being cruelled by a rear-wing failure that forced him to spin off the track.

The Monaco winner was still smiling and sharing a joke as he fronted a media pack after having his session cut short on day two of Formula One testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Ricciardo lost a chunk of his rear wing, in what Renault later said was a Drag Reduction System (DRS) failure, causing him to run off the track. He avoided putting the car into the wall, but the repairs that were needed meant he was unable to return to the track to finish his morning session before teammate Nico Hulkenberg took over.

The mishap came after Ricciardo posted the slowest time in his first day on track for his new team, but he was focusing on the positives.

“I was quite encouraged by the run I had before the DRS failure. I did quite a long run of about 15 laps and I was quite encouraged by that,’’ Ricciardo said. “I felt like the way I was able to bring the times back towards the end of the run ... the way the tyre behaved I thought that was quite good ... and the way the car is behaving.

“I got a few more laps [ on day one], I was kind of just getting familiar and doing some set-up changes to feel how much the front wing does this to the car. But the run this morning I felt that was a bit more real so to speak.’’

Ricciardo had been running as high as second during the morning session before the rear-wing blowout.