Alonso fastest on opening day of Silverstone test

F1 Test, Silverstone, Silverstone Circuit

Fernando Alonso topped the first day of testing at Silverstone, going more than 1.5s faster than Esteban Ocon on his first outing in the Mercedes F1 W07. Williams test driver Alex Lynn was third fastest, another 1.5s slower.

Rain in the afternoon also made it unable for anyone to improve on their morning times, making the classification fixed early on.

At Ferrari, youngster Charles Leclerc had another outing in the SF16-H, albeit he completed just 19 laps throughout the entire day. Niki Mazepin was in action for Force India while Carlos Sainz was on duty for Toro Rosso, managing 91 laps, the third most productive driver today.

For Pirelli, Pascal Wehrlein was driving a 2014-spec Mercedes F1 car. Fitted with 2016-size tyres, the aim was to help Pirelli in evaluating compounds for the 2017 tyres.

Pierre Gasly finally drove the Red Bull RB12. That was fitted with the Halo2 device on the early runs, with Gasly wearing glasses with a tiny camera built into it. The RB12 itself was fitted with aerodynamic sensors around the airbox to measure the aerodynamic and cooling impact of the Halo system. All in all, Red Bull's day was cut short, as in the morning an electronic issue was found on the car that proved hard to cure, making the team lose nearly the entire morning of running.