Posted on 12th July 2016
At the first day of in-season test at the Silverstone circuit today, Fernando Alonso finished more than 1.5s clear of Mercedes youngster Esteban Ocon and Williams youngster Alex Lynn as the wet weather had an impact on how many drivers were on the circuit during the car.
The torrential downpour was lengthy, if not as sudden as the shower that saw Sunday’s race start behind a Safety Car, and few teams ran on the full wet tyre. Conditions slowly improved but the track didn’t dry out, while the afternoon session was bizarrely interrupted by a red flag when a piece of wood fell from the lighting gantry above the pit-straight after a gust of wind. The two-metre long baton fell to the near-side of the track before being quickly removed but it was certainly a safety scare.
But by far the most enthralling, if not surprising, story of the day came from Red Bull, who completed an installation lap with the Halo fitted to Pierre Gasly’s car at the beginning of the test.
Despite pioneering the ‘Aeroscreen’ concept, Red Bull tested the cockpit protection system (which the Ferrari team have trialled twice this season, most frequently in last week’s British GP P1) despite Christian Horner’s recent criticism of the device.
Horner said to the media today that he wouldn’t be voting the Halo (the FIA’s preferred head safety mechanism for next season) in for 2017 and that it shouldn’t be “rushed through”.
Early in the morning (when it was dry) saw a flurry of activity at the start of the day saw Esteban Ocon, who is testing on both days for Mercedes because of their need to field a young driver, rush to the top of the timesheets. But the Frenchman, a reserve driver at Renault this season, was quickly leapfrogged by Fernando Alonso.
But it was Fernando Alonso who failed to score a point at the British GP despite the MP4-31’s upgrades, set a 1:31.290 in the morning session before a downpour during the lunchtime break had teams ducking for cover in the pits.
The pace was so impressive that Alonso’s benchmark would have earned him sixth on the grid had he set it in Q3 last weekend. However, it was set on the supersoft tyre, a compound which wasn’t then available to drivers. Alonso eventually completed 105 laps and was by far the most experienced driver on display. In fact, by taking him out of the equation, the average age of the field was less than 20 years old.
Alonso managed to finish ahead of Esteban Ocon in second place, Alex Lynn in third place, current GP3 leader Charles Leclerc in fourth place who was fresh from his F1 debut in practice for Haas.
F1 debutante and Formula Renault 2.0 driver seventeen year old Nikita Mazepin ended the day in fifth place, ahead of Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr in sixth place, fellow F1 debutante Santino Ferrucci who finished in seventh place for Haas F1and Manor F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein who was testing for Mercedes today and ended the session eighth in the 2014 Mercedes car as he was testing 2017 tyre components and materials for Pirelli.
GP2 driver Sergey Sirotkin ended the day in ninth place for Renault and fellow GP2 driver Pierre Gasly rounded off the top ten finishers of the day. However Gasly was plagued by a wiring problem all morning and only managed nine laps in the dry. When the issue was fixed and the engine was fired up again, the heavy rain had started.
The classification for the first day of the Silverstone test is as follows:-
1. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:31.290, 105 laps
2. Esteban Ocon, Mercedes, 1:32.833, 123 laps
3. Alex Lynn, Williams, 1:34.433, 54 laps
4. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:34.466, 19 laps
5. Nikita Mazepin, Force India, 1:34.521, 35 laps
6. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:34.643, 91 laps
7. Santino Ferrucci, Haas, 1:34.866, 55 laps
8. Pascal Wehrlein, Pirelli test, 1:34.982, 48 laps
9. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:35.631, 64 laps
10. Sergey Sirotkin, 1:36.575, Renault, 48 laps
11. Pierre Gasly, 1:43.891, Red Bull, 50 laps
Driving for Pleasure will be covering the in-season test at the Silverstone circuit this week. Keep your eyes peeled for the final day of the test tomorrow evening.
Sarah Jones-
