Silverstone test comes to a close

The Formula One young drivers test came to a close on Friday with a familiar name at the top of the timing sheets.

With the recent tyre crisis in Formula One following the very high profile Pirelli tyre failures at the British Grand Prix, the FIA opened up the already scheduled young drivers test to allow teams to put their racing drivers in the car for a day on the basis that they would solely be testing new Pirelli tyres to be used for the remainder of the Formula One season.

Over Wednesday and Thursday race drivers appearances were limited with Max Chilton completing 27 laps for Marussia, while Paul di Resta completed 58 laps for Force India on the opening day of testing.

On Thursday Paul di Resta completed another 41 laps as he had only ran half a session on Wednesday, while Nico Hulkenberg chalked up 52 laps for Sauber with Pastor Maldonado doing 71 laps for Williams.

Daniel Ricciardo spent the day split between Toro Rosso and Red Bull, driving 48 laps in the morning for his current team and another 59 laps for his potential new team next season.

But on Friday the number of race drivers taking part in the test increased with Jules Bianchi completing 39 laps for Marussia, Charles Pic running 60 laps for Caterham, Giedo van der Garde running another 65 laps for Caterham, Jean-Eric Vergne running 42 laps for Toro Rosso, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa completing 69 laps, Force India’s Adrian Sutil completing a mammoth 99 laps and Sebastian Vettel running 79 laps for Red Bull.

And it was the three time Formula One World Champion that set the pace with a time of 1minute 32.894 seconds, 0.348 seconds clear of Sutil.

After completing 465 miles on the new Pirelli tyres Vettel told the media: ?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 it?s always nice to drive at Silverstone.?

After impressing in the Toro Rosso on Thursday Carlos Sainz Jr got his chance on Friday in the Red Bull and he told formula1.com: ?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. It?s a big boost for my self-confidence, but I?m 18-years-old, still very young and still learning. There?s a long way to go.?