Young Driver Test 2010: Ricciardo faster than Vettel

I n Abu Dhabi also went Wednesday (17.11. ) again the young talents of Formula 1 on the hunt for times. The fastest man was again Daniel Ricciardo. As on the day before, the 21-year-old Red Bull Junior left the competition well behind. Jerome D'Ambrosio landed seven tenths behind in second place.

Ricciardo not only dominated his young colleagues but even drove faster than the newly crowned Formula 1 world champion. Sebastian Vettel was almost 1.3 seconds slower on his way to pole position on Saturday. Too much, however, cannot be interpreted in terms of Ricciardo's time. Experts estimate that the route has increased by one and a half to two seconds since the F1 qualifying due to the heavy traffic.

Bird ahead of Paffett and Bianchi

That was the case It is also no wonder that Sam Bird in third place in the Mercedes GP was able to undercut the specifications of the regular drivers Schumacher and Rosberg by 1.3 seconds. The fourth fastest lap was set by Gary Paffett in a McLaren, while Ferrari talent Jules Bianchi was fifth. After the Frenchman had to do a lot of development work the day before, he was finally able to drive a little faster on Wednesday.

Sergio Perez recorded the sixth fastest time on his Formula 1 debut for Sauber. 'I am very satisfied,' reported the Mexican in the evening. 'I learned a lot about the Formula 1 processes, which are very different from what I was used to in GP 2.' On Saturday, Perez will be allowed to go into the cockpit again.

Force India with Di Resta and Buurman

Force India let two pilots behind the wheel just like the day before. In the morning it was the turn of substitute driver Paul di Resta, who drove the seventh best time, in the afternoon the Dutchman Yelmer Buurman sat in the cockpit, whose name appeared in tenth place in the timesheet.

The Williams- Debut watched by Pastor Maldonado. After Nico Hülkenberg was kicked out, it is certain that the Venezuelan will get the second cockpit alongside Rubens Barrichello. On Wednesday, the Paydriver was 2.8 seconds behind Ricciardo's fastest time of the day.

Final farewell to Bridgestone

The fastest driver of the new teams was HRT driver Davide Valsecchi, who was almost five seconds behind the front. In addition to the Italian, the Czech GP2 driver Josef Kral was also chasing times for Hispania, but stayedbut a second slower. At the bottom of the table, the two Lotus testers Rodolfo Gonzalez (Venezulea) and Vladimir Arabzhiez (Bulgaria) found themselves again.

With the Young Drivers Test on Wednesday, the teams finally said goodbye to tire partner Bridgestone . The new Pirelli rubbers will be put on for the first time on Friday. Then most of the teams have their permanent staff in the cockpit behind the wheel.