Daniel Ricciardo finished first and third on the timesheets on the second day of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone, even though his outing in the Red Bull didn't go quite according to plan.

The Australian, who is hoping to take over Mark Webber's vacant seat when he leaves F1 at season end, slightly blotted his copybook when he spun off at Luffield whilst driving the Red Bull and bringing out the red flags.

However, along with the red flags, his red face was soon a distant memory as the popular youngster put in a strong performance that should go some way to convincing the Austrian outfit to give him the drive.

Toro Rosso had two drivers on duty, in the morning Ricciardo was at the wheel, which meant that the hard and medium compounds were the focus of the team's attention, running to a programme prescribed by the tyre supplier.

At lunchtime, having set what would be the fastest time of the day, Ricciardo had a quick change into Infiniti Red Bull Racing overalls for a run his run in the RBR9.

Antonio Felix da Costa had driven the RB9 in the morning picking up where he left off yesterday. However, an unspecified problem meant a late start and as a result the youngster only managed 19 laps. Nonetheless, the Portuguese driver was pleased with his day and a half's work with the team.

"To drive the car for half of the three days of testing has been a fantastic opportunity," he said. "It's a good sign that the team believes I can carry such a heavy workload and get the job done. To be working with a world championship-winning team is the best learning experience you could have."

"It was good today but very busy, so it's still a bit of a blur," added Ricciardo. "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," he admitted, "I just lost the rear on the entry. 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."

"The morning was a bit frustrating as we were late going out," said the team's race engineering co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We discovered a problem with the car last night and that set us back. Despite that we did get some good data and Antonio was excellent throughout.

"As for the afternoon, Daniel had only about 45 minutes to swap over from his morning tyre test to driving our car, a completely different machine, but he was up to speed very quickly. As ever his feedback was exemplary and he gave us a lot of information to go through."