Young Driver Test results: Alonso faster than Ricciardo and Ocon qualifying pace

Today the traditional Young Driver Test was held in Abu Dhabi, giving mostly young drivers the opportunity to make their first kilometres in a Formula 1 car. However, there were also a few familiar faces.

One of those familiar faces today was that of two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. He returns to Alpine in 2021 after two years away from Formula 1. Although on a day like today it's not about times, you can still say that the Spaniard owes it to his position to be the fastest today. He was and with a 1:36.333 his fastest lap was even faster than the qualifying times of Renault drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon last weekend.

Nyck de Vries, together with Stoffel Vandoorne, were able to drive for Mercedes today and didn’t do it without merit. He yielded only two tenths on Alonso and set the second-fastest time. Not bad for someone who has never driven a Formula 1 car before. In total he drove 110 laps. Vandoorne finished third with 82 laps to his name.

The most productive driver was Robert Shwartzman (129 laps) in the Ferrari, followed by Marino Sato (127 laps) for AlphaTauri and Antonio Fuoco (126 laps) for Ferrari.

Yuki Tsunoda got to step into the Alpha Tauri today and drove a good session. In total, he covered 123 laps and eventually finished in fifth place. It is expected that he will be announced this week that he will replace Daniil Kvyat as Pierre Gasly's teammate next year. Today's slowest driver was Mick Schumacher in the Haas. He completed 125 laps.