Seven young drivers took to the Silverstone track today at the first of two test sessions, but it was the familiar face of Fernando Alonso at the top of the timings.
Alonso was showing off his experience in the morning session today, topping the timing sheets with a 1m31.290s after his 55 laps. The Spaniard described the session as “a good and productive morning”, and was the only driver to take to the soft tyre in the morning, with everybody else setting their times on the harder medium compound tyre.
Mercedes driver Esteban Ocon set the most laps in the first session, completing eighty in all. The young driver finished the morning session second, a second and a half slower than Alonso.
One of the biggest stories of the day was that Pierre Gasly was running the “halo” on his Red Bull car. It was the first time the head protection device – which is intended to be introduced in 2017 – has been run on a non-Ferrari car. Gasly only completed seven laps in the morning due to a wiring issue, with a top time of 1m43.891s.
It’s a big test for the Red Bull junior. If the Frenchman does well, he might have a chance at Danil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso seat in 2017.
One of the young driver’s also hoping to impress was Charles Leclerc. The Frenchman impressed in his Haas test ahead of the British Grand Prix and finished the morning session fourth after 17 laps in a Ferrari. He was only able to add a single lap to the total in the afternoon session.
Rain slowed the beginning of the afternoon session. Alonso was the first man out but pitted before he could set a time.
Eventually, drivers managed to begin to set times, with Alonso the early quickest with a 1m57.015s.
Just as the rain stopped, the session was red-flagged briefly when a large piece of wood fell onto the track from the lighting gantry on the pit straight. Once that was cleared, the testing resumed, with a few drivers heading out onto the circuit with intermediate tyres.
The rain soon returned, and nobody was able to improve their times, but it gave the young drivers a chance to get valuable running time in a Formula One car. Ocon finished the day with the most laps, followed by Alonso and Sainz.
