Alonso leads first day of Silverstone test

2016 F1 season

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Fernando Alonso led the first day of testing at Silverstone for McLaren.

Alonso was one of few drivers to set his quickest time on the super-soft tyre. Rain disrupted the running in the middle of the day.

Silverstone test in pictures
Several teams ran junior drivers at the test including first-timers Santino Ferrucci of Haas and Nikita Mazepin of Force India.

“We managed to do a lot of running this morning, before the rain and thankfully we have a second day in the car to make up for the time we lost in the afternoon,” said Mazepin.

“Jumping from a Formula Three car into a Formula One, there are hundreds of surprises, but the biggest have been the amount of downforce and the amount of speed you can carry through corners, and how great the change of direction feels.

Red Bull used the test to evaluate the new version of the Halo head protection device. Test driver Pierre Gasly said he was “a bit surprised” by his first experience with it. “It doesn’t change that much,” said the GP2 race winner. “For sure it looks different but from the inside of the car it doesn’t change much.”

Charles Leclerc, who has previously driven one of the team’s cars on a filming day, had his first run in a proper session. However his running was curtailed by a power unit fault.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
114Fernando AlonsoMcLarenMP4-311’31.290105Super-soft
224Esteban OconMercedesW071’32.8331.543123Medium
341Alex LynnWilliamsFW381’34.4333.14354Medium
432Charles LeclercFerrariSF16-H1’34.4463.15619Medium
534Nikita MazepinForce IndiaVJM091’34.5213.23135Soft
655Carlos Sainz JnrToro RossoSTR111’34.6433.35391Medium
751Santino FerrucciHaasVF-161’34.8663.57655Medium
80Pascal WehrleinMercedesW051’34.9823.69248Prototype
964Rio HaryantoManorMRT051’35.6314.34164Soft
1048Sergey SirotkinRenaultRS161’36.5755.28548Hard
1115Pierre GaslyRed BullRB121’43.89112.60152Medium

*Tyre testing for Pirelli

2016 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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30 comments on “Alonso leads first day of Silverstone test”

  1. Is there any info on who will be there tomorrow?

    1. Mercedes AMG Petronas
      Esteban Ocon (Tuesday/Wednesday)
      Pascal Wehrlein (Tuesday/Wednesday)

      Scuderia Ferrari
      Charles Leclerc (Tuesday)
      Kimi Raikkonen (Wednesday)

      Williams Martini Racing
      Alex Lynn (Tuesday)
      Valtteri Bottas (Wednesday)

      Red Bull Racing
      Pierre Gasly (Tuesday/Wednesday)

      Sahara Force India
      Nikita Mazepin (Tuesday/Wednesday)

      Scuderia Toro Rosso
      Carlos Sainz (Tuesday)
      Sergio Sette Camara (Wednesday)

      McLaren
      Fernando Alonso (Tuesday)
      Stoffel Vandoorne (Wednesday)

      Renault Sport F1
      Sergey Sirotkin (Tuesday)
      Jolyon Palmer (Wednesday)

      Manor Racing Team
      Rio Haryanto (Tuesday)
      Jordan King (Wednesday)

      1. Thanks!

  2. Did Gastly bring his Gp2 car?

    1. @davef1 – He was driving F1 car for first time. Plus he did only 6 laps in dry morning, with new Halo, before mechanical problem put him out. And afternoon was wet, so he could not improve.

  3. Is this the first time a McLaren had led a session (unofficial or not) since their partnership with Honda?

      1. Sadly it took being the only car on super-soft with a far more experienced driver and a rain interruption. :(

        1. The Blade Runner (@)
          13th July 2016, 10:19

          @selbbin

          Don’t spoil the moment!

  4. Wehrlein tested in a Mercedes W05? Interesting…

    1. He was testing some 2017 tyres for Pirelli. They (Pirelli) have to use a 2014 car, and Mercedes provided theirs which was nice of them. ;-)

      1. @ijw1 – Thanks!

      2. @ijw1 Was it full spec 2017 tyres or just the compounds? Have not seen any photos of the W05 with the fat tyres.

        1. No idea, although I suspect that it would be the compounds rather than the actual 2017 tyres themselves.

  5. Pokemon GO is getting so popular, there’s even a Pokemon at the bottom of the time sheets of an F1 session!

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      12th July 2016, 21:03

      Can’t wait until the mechanics and marshals are playing Pokémon at the races

  6. These young aspiring kids are quite fast, especially Fernando Alonso. He placed even McLaren to p1.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      12th July 2016, 21:04

      I foresee two championships for him

      1. Maybe with that up and coming Renault mob.

  7. Just watched a youtu e vid of 2006 schumi chasing alonso at turkey all race. Would love to see some of these kids pee their pants in a V8 or V10.

    1. In F1 cars with less power, less torque and traction control? Easy peasy!

      The screaming V8’s, as wonderful as they are, are no match for the current PU’s!

  8. Ferrari’s laps are just 19… This is not good.

  9. What is it with these drivers and their incessant ‘for sures’ and ‘yeahs’. They ALL say it so I’m wondering: do they learn that in driver school? :) I think that school may need a new English teacher!

  10. Any idea why wehrlein and haryanto used car numbers other than their normal race car numbers? Also isn’t sauber participating in the test? And correct me if I am wrong but I remember someone else using 34 before

    1. Sauber skips the test because they lack the money for it @bharat141.

  11. what was pascal wehrlehin testing? the old w05? prototype? da hell is that?

    1. 2017 tyres

  12. dodge5847 (@)
    13th July 2016, 13:07

    Can teams use all new components without risk of penalty in testing? Ie it would make sense to use all new everything without putting 100 laps plus strain on existing or planned parts

  13. Did anyone notice the time Alonso set is almost a second faster than his quali time in the race last weekend. This effort in Q3 would have got him to P6

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