SILVERSTONE YOUNG DRIVER TESTDAY THREE
Driver (AM): Carlos Sainz Jr/Driver (PM): /Sebastian Vettel
Car: /RB9/Car: /RB9
Laps: /35 laps/Laps: /79
Best time: 1:33.546/Best time: 1:32.894
Circuit length: 5.891km
Fastest lap: S. Vettel (1:32.894)
Infiniti Red Bull Racings final day at the Silverstone Young Driver Test again saw the team split its running, with GP3 and Renault 3.5 Series driver Carlos Sainz Jr at the wheel in the morning and F1 championship leader Sebastian Vettel on tyre-testing duty in the afternoon.
After driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso yesterday, Sainz Jr moved across to our garage today and in a busy schedule the young Spaniard worked his way through 35 laps of Silverstone.
This has been an incredible opportunity, he said afterwards. It was not an easy day and the nerves were definitely there. In the end though, it all went smoothly and there were no major issues. I enjoyed the work and tried to do my best in terms of giving feedback to the team. Its a big boost for my self-confidence, but Im 18-years-old, still very young and still learning. Theres a long way to go.
Sebastian Vettel then got his first taste of the new compound Pirelli tyres and afterwards said the new rubber had performed well.
We had three days of testing with a lot of different drivers in a lot of different cars and no failuresin conditions that were hotter than the [British] grand prixso thats good, he said. Obviously, we were very limited on what we could do, but for me there is not that much difference with the tyres. It was good to get in some laps though, good to get a feeling for them and its always nice to drive at Silverstone.
Race Engineering Co-ordinator Andy Damerum added: Because of the tyre test with Seb we probably had about 2.5 hours of running with Carlos in the morning, but we were very satisfied with the work we got through during that period. The team was impressed with his ability to adjust to the car, happy with his feedback and also with his pace. As for the afternoon, we were again locked into Pirellis programme and you cant make any adjustments to the car, so while it wasnt the best balance for Seb, hes an expert at driving round these issues and we got a lot done, 79 laps; over 460km. Its been a useful test and aside from some small problems, which you always get with a test car, weve had good reliability and good performance.
1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1m32.894s 79 laps2. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m33.242s +0.348s 993. Nicolas Prost Lotus-Renault 1m33.256s +0.362s 834. Carlos Sainz Jr Red Bull-Renault 1m33.546s +0.652s 355. Davide Rigon Ferrari 1m33.592s +0.698s 206. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m33.624s +0.730s 697. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m33.647s +0.753s 428. Gary Paffett McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.294s +1.400s 779. Susie Wolff Williams-Renault 1m35.093s +2.199s 8910 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m35.155s +2.261s 8511 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m35.281s +2.387s 2212 Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m35.576s +2.682s 6013 Kimiya Sato Sauber-Ferrari 1m35.642s +2.748s 6714 Rodolfo Gonzalez Marussia-Cosworth 1m36.339s +3.445s 2415 James Calado Force India-Mercedes 1m36.451s +3.557s 516 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m36.744s +3.850s 39
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