Posted on 24th June 2015
In the first day of the final in-season test in Austria, Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein led the way as F1 debutee Antonio Fuoco crashed the Ferrari on his debut.
The rain was falling steadily when the session got under way, with Fuoco and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne heading out on full wets for an installation lap. The track then remained empty thereafter before the session was red-flagged at the half hour mark when the rain intensified at the Red Bull Ring.
With conditions not expected to improve until the afternoon, discussions began as to whether to cancel the day’s running and extend the test until Thursday.
However, after much deliberation by the track organisers; the decision was taken to run in the afternoon, as the weather began to improve and instead extend the day’s running by two hours.
An hour after the lunch break, Vandoorne broke the silence when he headed on full wets, swiftly followed by Fuoco and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen. Conditions on the track improved quickly with a switch to intermediates soon followed and it wasn’t long until the track dried sufficiently for dry rubber.
More rain fell with one hour before the test ended at 8pm (CET) and even though Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Susie Wolff and Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly headed out on a track that soon became dry enough for slicks, the times did not improve at all.
But it was Pascal Wehrlein who topped the timesheets on the first day of the first with a lap time of 1.11.005s to finish 0.187 seconds clear of Force India’s Esteban Ocon who finished the session in second place.
Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen finished the day in third place but he managed to complete the most laps of the day with 97 under his belt. Ferrari Academy driver Foccuo who won the 2013 Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS series clocked up an impressive number of laps on his debut.
But with three hours of running to go, the Italian put a wheel on the grass on the approach to Turn 1 and spun, hitting the wall and damaging the front-end of the car. But he managed to finish in fourth place in the session ahead of Romain Grosjean in fifth place, Pierre Gasly in sixth place and Sauber test driver and Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello; who only put his first lap time on the board with three hours to finish in seventh place.
GP2 Championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne (who hands the car over to Fernando Alonso on Wednesday) was eighth fastest ahead of Williams Development Driver Susie Wolff -(who will be in the car for British Grand Prix FP1 session) finished in ninth place.
The classification of the first day of the in-season test in Austria is as follows:-
1.Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes-Mercedes, 1.11.005s,67 laps
2.Esteban Ocon, Force India-Mercedes, 1.11.192s, 76 laps
3.Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1.11.328s, 97 laps
4.Antonio Fuoco, Ferrari, 1.11.331s, 71 laps
5.Romain Grosjean, Lotus-Mercedes, 1.11.509s, 45 laps
6.Pierre Gasly, Red Bull-Renault, 1.11.757s, 80 laps
7.Raffaele Marciello, Sauber-Ferrari, 1.11.826s, 53 laps
8.Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda, 1.12.530s, 76 laps
9.Susie Wolff, Williams-Mercedes, 1.13.248s, 39 laps
Driving For Pleasure will also be covering the second and final day of the final in-season test at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and keep your eyes peeled for our report tomorrow.
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
