Alonso on top during rained out Silverstone F1-testing

Published on 12 July 2016 by Mike Motilall

During the first test session in a two-days-testing at Silverstone, Fernando Alonso clocked the fastest time in his McLaren. In the morning session, the Spaniard clocked a time in the 1:31’s on the super-softs. That time remained unthreatened for the rest of the day, just like the rest that were done in the morning, as the Heavens opened up in the afternoon.

Rain meant that Pierre Gasly, who only did seven laps in the early session, was down by quite a bit regarding amount of laps. The Red Bull Junior started his day with the improved version of the Halo on the RB12. Mercedes driver Esteban Ocon was the most productive driver of them all: 123 laps. During the testing, we witnessed the debut of the American Santino Ferrucci (Haas F1) and Nikita Mazepin (Force India).

It is mandatory for the Formula 1-teams to put a rookie-driver behind the wheels of the car, at least twice during the four days of in-season testing. That is the reason why the new faces are around and that is also the reason why Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will not take part in testing. Both of them already had one day of testing in Barcelona, mid-May.

Pascal Wehrlein drove a modified 2014 Mercedes to do some testing for Pirelli. Wednesday the teams will get back to testing on the British track.

F1 Collective Test  – Silverstone  – Tuesday 12 July

 1  Fernando Alonso    McLaren           1:31.290         105 
 2  Esteban Ocon       Mercedes          1:32.833 +1.543  123 
 3  Alex Lynn          Williams          1:34.433 +3.143   54 
 4  Charles Leclerc    Ferrari           1:34.477 +3.187   19 
 5  Nikita Mazepin     Force India       1:34.521 +3.231   35 
 6  Carlos Sainz       Toro Rosso        1:34.725 +3.435   91 
 7  Santino Ferrucci   Haas F1           1:34.866 +3.576   55 
 8  Pascal Wehrlein    Mercedes          1:34.982 +3.692   48 
 9  Rio Haryanto       Manor F1          1:35.631 +4.341   64 
10  Sergey Sirotkin    Renault           1:36.914 +5.624   48 
11  Pierre Gasly       Red Bull Racing   1:43.891 +12.601  52 
12  Valtteri Bottas    Williams          -                  0