JULY 12, 2012

Bottas impressive at Silverstone test

Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas impressed the team in testing at Silverstone today, completing 120 laps as the team gives the highly rated Finn two interrupted days in the FW34.

Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas impressed the team in testing at Silverstone today, completing 120 laps as the team gives the highly rated Finn two interrupted days in the FW34.

Bottas did shorter runs in the morning and a race simulation in the afternoon, which was curtailed slightly early by rain.

One of his early runs culminated in a 1m31.436s lap on a set of soft Pirelli tyres. While track conditions always have to be taken into account, that compares with Fernando Alonso's 1m32.167s quickest lap in Saturday morning's FP3 at the British Grand Prix, the only practice session held on a dry track. For the record, the quickest Williams FP3 time was a 1m32.622s from Pastor Maldonado.

Team race engineer Tom McCullough said: "Valtteri drove excellently all day, doing everything we asked of him without putting a foot wrong."

Meanwhile, in the Marussia, Max Chilton lapped in 1:36.558 in 34 laps before handing over to Rio Haryanto, who managed 1:37.404 in 19 laps.

At HRT Ma Qing Hua made history as the first Chinese to drive an F1 car in an official capacity, working his way down to a respectable 1:37.829.

"He did a great job," said team principal Luis Perez Sala, "and now we have to work so that he can continue to progress on his journey towards Formula One."