F1 young driver test: Adrian Sutil sets early pace on final day

The Silverstone-based squad had topped the first morning with rookie James Calado and Sutil knocked Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne off top spot in the second hour of running today by two tenths of a second.

Vergne ended the morning's running third fastest after being eclipsed by Felipe Massa in the third hour, with the top three all race rather than rookie pilots thanks to the introduction of the new-specification Pirelli rubber in this test.

Young driver test gallery

Carlos Sainz Jr was fourth fastest on his first appearance for Red Bull having driven for Toro Rosso yesterday, ending up a quarter-of-a-second faster than Lotus development driver Nicolas Prost, who is having a second day of running after plans to run Kimi Raikkonen today were dropped.

Caterham has opted to run both of its race drivers today, with Giedo van der Garde driving this morning, ending up sixth fastest, and Charles Pic taking over this afternoon.

Auto GP championship contender Kimya Sato made his debut for Sauber, setting the seventh fastest time ahead of Williams development driver Susie Wolff, having her first run on a circuit in the team's 2013 car.

Wolff focused on aerodynamic work this morning.

McLaren's Gary Paffett was able to complete only six laps before he was forced to stop with an engine problem.

The team expects to get the car back out on track this afternoon.

Marussia reserve driver Rodolfo Gonzalez also lost track time when he spun at the run out of The Loop into Aintree corner and had to be recovered after completing 21 laps. He returned to action before midday.

World champion Sebastian Vettel is scheduled to take over the Red Bull this afternoon, with Davide Rigon replacing Massa in the Ferrari.

Toro Rosso will give Daniil Kvyat his first run this afternoon, while Marussia race driver Jules Bianchi takes the Marussia from Gonzalez.

Times at 12.15pm:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car              Time       Gap      Laps
 1.  Adrian Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  1m33.421s           29
 2.  Carlos Sainz Jr      Red Bull-Renault      1m33.546s  +0.125s  35
 3.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari               1m33.624s  +0.203s  49
 4.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m33.647s  +0.226s  16
 5.  Nicolas Prost        Lotus-Renault         1m33.876s  +0.455s  31
 6.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham-Renault      1m35.155s  +1.734s  54
 7.  Kimiya Sato          Sauber-Ferrari        1m35.642s  +2.221s  33
 8.  Susie Wolff          Williams-Renault      1m35.704s  +2.283s  31
 9.  Gary Paffett         McLaren-Mercedes      1m36.284s  +2.863s  6
10.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Marussia-Cosworth     1m36.339s  +2.918s  24