Vergne tops the time sheets in Abu Dhabi

Jean-Eric Vergne got the opportunity to test a Red Bull for the first time at Abu Dhabi, and he didn’t fail to impress.

Following a successful, championship winning stint in the British Formula 3 championship Vergne graduated to Formula Renault 3.5 and finished second, he is now looking to progress further as part of Red Bull’s young driver programme.

The 21-year-old French driver is a regular in the simulator for Red Bull, but some real seat time allowed him to improve his times further through the day.

He finished nearly a second ahead of the Ferrari test driver Jules Bianchi, who was focusing on aerodynamic testing. Following these two was Robert Wickens who took the top spot in this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 championship, ahead of Vergne.

Further down the list English driver Max Chilton tested the Force India and used his previous straight line testing experience to pip Vallteri Bottas to sixth by just one tenth of a second.

Meanwhile, Gary Paffett, a long time McLaren employee and another simulator regular ran six tenths quicker than Oliver Turvey who he shared a McLaren with.

Here is a full list of the times: