Ricciardo sidelined from second day of testing in Bahrain

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Daniel Ricciardo has been forced to pull out of the second day of testing in Bahrain, as the McLaren driver is still feeling under weather.

The Aussie wasn't on track on Thursday as scheduled, with teammate Lando Norris running for the entire duration of the session.

McLaren hoped that Ricciardo would be able to take to drive on Friday, but the team has announced that he won't be taking part in today's running.

"Daniel Ricciardo began feeling unwell yesterday morning, and while signs of improvement, the team will continue to assess him before he resumes duties," read a short statement from the Woking-based outfit.

"Daniel has had several precautionary Covid-19 tests during this time, which have been negative throughout."

Ricciardo will be hoping to finally resume testing on Saturday, the final day of testing ahead of next week's season-opening round in Bahrain.

Although McLaren enjoyed a productive three days of preparation in Barcelona two weeks ago, Norris' programme on Thursday was impacted by brake issues which the team was struggling to solve.

"It didn’t allow us to do long runs at least," commented Norris. "There’s things we’re trying to fix for the next few days, it’s not going to be an easy fix.

"We’ll see what we can do. Everyone’s working hard to come up with something."

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