Daniel Ricciardo may have secured himself the reserve role with Red Bull for next season after ending this week's young driver test in stunning form.

The British Formula Three champion concluded his three days behind the wheel in unfortunate fashion when a plume of smoke billowed up from the back of his car.

Prior to that, though, the Australian had set the fastest time of the three days with a lap of one minute 17.418secs for the 4.428km circuit in southern Spain.

That was a staggering 1.318secs quicker than the next best on track in Paul di Resta for Force India.

The Scot further underlined his ability, and in all likelihood has earned himself the reserve and test driver seat with the team for 2010, although did endure one spin into the gravel during the day.

Britons Gary Paffett, fastest yesterday, and Mike Conway were third and fourth overall for McLaren and Brawn GP, the latter car in its final outing for the team before it reverts to Mercedes.

Williams' Nico Hulkenberg, the only one of the young drivers on show this week who has a F1 contract for next season, was fifth, almost two seconds behind Ricciardo.

The young German was followed by Belgian Bertrand Baguette, who drove for Renault on Tuesday, but was at the wheel of the Sauber today.

Another Briton in Oliver Turvey again impressed as he was third fastest in the morning, only to drop to seventh by the end of the day as conditions improved during the afternoon.

Turvey was followed by Sweden's Marcus Ericsson driving for Brawn and Lucas di Grassi for Renault, the latter completing the most laps on the day of 123.

American JR Hildebrand was 10th for Force India, while the top three finishers in this year's Italian Formula Three championship were all given a run-out by Ferrari.

Mexican Pablo Sanchez was the quickest, edging out Italians Daniel Zampieri and Marco Zipoli, with the trio separated by less than 0.7secs in finishing 11th, 12th and 13th overall.

Toro Rosso duo Brendon Hartley and Mirko Bortolotti were down in 14th and 15th, over five seconds back.