Mercedes test driver fastest on Day 1 in Austria

Pascal Wehrlein

Day of a 2-day F1 in-season test at the Red Bull Ring began today and as expected, anyone can be fastest in the Mercedes F1 car. Pascal Wehrlein set fast time of 1m11.005s.

Pascal Wehrlein
"It was a very mixed day! Unfortunately the weather meant that we couldn't do our full schedule. In fact, we didn't get any running at all this morning and only managed three runs on dry tires in the afternoon. But there were definitely some positives at the end. I got to try the slicks, intermediates and wets, so it was good from my perspective to be able to compare the tires and get some experience in all conditions – even if it wasn't ideal for the test program.

"I can't really say if the car has improved since Barcelona as the conditions were very different and this is a very different track also. You could see even in the dry over the race weekend that a lot of drivers were struggling for grip and in the wet it's extremely slippery – unusually so, I would say. The grip is very low and it's very easy to lock up or run wide at some corners. It's a shame that I didn't get so much track time to build my experience – but it was great to be back in a Formula One car again and I'm looking forward to hopefully a smoother day tomorrow with Force India.

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