ABU DHABI TEST – Nyck de Vries fastest on day one of post-season test
Mercedes Formula E champion Nyck de Vries was fastest on the first day of post-season testing in Abu Dhabi. The Belgian rookie set the pace a 23.1 putting him over a second faster than the Alpha Tauri of Liam Lawson, during the combined young driver and tyre test ahead of the introduction of the 18-inch tyres next season.
F2 champion and Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri was six thousandths ahead of McLaren’s IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward. O’Ward completed over two race distances for McLaren and had set the pace before lunch, but he only managed to improve by six tenths during the afternoon.
Valtteri Bottas and his teammate for 2022 Guanyu Zhou made their debuts for Alfa Romeo, the Finn had been given permission by Mercedes to take part in the test with his new team for 2022, and donned a plain white race suit for the running in the mule car.
Zhou was fifth fastest after going half a second faster than Red Bull Juri Vips, the Estonian driver causing one of three red flags when he spun at Turn Fourteen damaging his car. Nick Yelloly was seventh ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, the McLaren driver the fastest of the ‘mule’ cars doing development work for Pirelli 2022 tyres.
Ricciardo was three tenths faster than the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, with Ferrari junior driver Robert Shwartzman tenth. The Russian driver shared duties with Antonio Fuoco at Ferrari but were split by the mule car of regular driver Charles Leclerc. Bottas also was faster than Fuoco, with Yuki Tsunoda just behind.
Williams driver Logan Sergeant had his first outing in an F1 car managing ninety-two laps, however, a power unit issue brought his day to an end with ninety minutes to go. However, the American still completed Esteban Ocon was sixteenth ahead of newly-crowned champion Max Verstappen.
George Russell was seventeenth, the Englishman is driving on both days of the test in the mule Mercedes ahead of his debut as a works driver next year. Mick Schumacher propped up the running order for Haas going nineteenth.
The final day of testing takes place on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. As teams are only permitted to field a young driver on one day of the test, only Haas will run two cars tomorrow, running Shwartzman and Pietro Fittipaldi. Williams will not feature on the second day of testing due as it does not have a mule car.