Sergio Perez of Racing Point finished fastest during the morning session on Day 2 of Formula One testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
The 30-year-old finished third on the first day of testing in Catalonia but was first past the chequered flag on Thursday when he clocked a time of one minute, 17.347 seconds in the RP20.
That was more than one second faster than Lewis Hamilton, who topped the pile in Wednesday's run but settled for seventh in the opening round of Day 2 action.
Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas returns in the afternoon session on Thursday, though Hamilton did enough driving for the both of them with 106 laps completed in the morning.
The official Formula One Twitter account posted the times from Thursday's morning session:
Morning Session Recap
Renault's Daniel Ricciardo may have been pleased to pip Red Bull's Alexander Albon to second, though the Australian was still four-tenths of a second slower than the leader.
Perez held the edge in the first two sectors, but Renault's star driver proved his mettle in the finishing third:
Ricciardo's performance was especially impressive considering his R.S.20 racked up the fewest laps of any car that took to the track on Thursday morning, per Autosport Live:
Hamilton's high lap count is understandable after Formula One took the decision to reduce the number of testing days from eight down to six in 2020.
His total still didn't come close to the 168 laps managed by Red Bull's Max Verstappen on Day 1, though his new W11 will have nonetheless contributed useful data after running largely on hard tyres.
Spectators were also intrigued by a new innovation on the W11, which saw Hamilton moving his steering wheel backwards and forwards on certain straights and turns.
Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz said a source at Mercedes confirmed the change to their car, which appears to allow the driver to adjust the ride height and influence its aerodynamics:
That newly spotted addition is an example of the innovation that has tended to put Mercedes ahead of their peers in recent years, with Hamilton chasing his seventh world championship in 2020.
British compatriot Lando Norris ended bottom of the times in Thursday's morning session with a fastest lap of 1:18.537 in the McLaren MCL35, which managed 48 laps.
That was one fewer than Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari SF1000, who was fast enough to finish sixth after 49 laps. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel will be eager to beat his time of 1:18.335 in his outing later on Thursday.
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