Abu Dhabi Test : Young Drivers Test Day Three

Driver: Mirko Bortolotti
Chassis / engine: FW33‐03 / CA543
Location: Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi
Objectives: Aero testing and familiarisation runs
Weather : Clear and sunny
Ambient & track temps: 26C ‐ 33C / 31C ‐ 48C

On day three of the AT&T Williams F1 team Abu Dhabi Test Mirko Bortolotti would take over the driving duties. He was driving for Williams as a prize for winning this year's Formula 2 title. He would end his day seventh fastest but was certain that he would have improved his best time had a red flag not stopped the session. The red flag was a s a result of Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez spinning.

"It's a bit disappointing," Bortolotti said. "Every time you jump in the car, you want to be quick. But even with the red flag we did well, so it's not a big deal.

"But it didn't help us because that was when we were out on new tyres and could have improved our performance. I'm very happy with the job that we did. We had no dramas, the team did a really good job and the performance was good.

"In the afternoon I could start doing proper runs, start to find the performance, the right braking points and lines on a track that you don't know."

Tom McCullough, Race Engineer: It has been an excellent final day with Mirko Bortolotti. He did a really good job, improving on each run and iterating down to some good lap times. Overall, he gave excellent feedback, was consistent and is clearly physically fit. We have now completed our three day test and have lots of useful information to take away. The factory have done a great job this week in getting lots of test items out here in order to help our understanding of the FW34 and we can now return to the factory and analyse the data in order to develop the FW34.

Mirko Bortolotti: Everything was new for me today; the car and the track, so there was a lot to learn. The team had several objectives this morning so I wasn't just focusing on lap time but on getting that work done for Williams' 2012 preparations. We completed that and then moved on to finding performance this afternoon. It has been a really interesting day for me. I have really enjoyed being here with AT&T Williams and I am very happy with the job that we did.

DRIVER      	   TEAM 		TIME     BEST / TOTAL
						 LAPS   LAPS
1 J E Vergne 	   Red Bull Racing 	1:38.917 10 / 46
2 S Bird 	   Mercedes 		1:40.897 92 / 104
3 J Bianchi 	   Ferrari 		1:41.347 10 / 106
4 O Turvey 	   McLaren 		1:41.513 75 / 89
5 M Chilton 	   Force India 		1:41.575 77 / 79
6 E Gutierrez 	   Sauber 		1:42.049 75 / 77
7 M Bortolotti 	   AT&T Williams 	1:43.277 69 / 74
8 K Ceccon 	   Toro Rosso 		1:43.686 21 / 35
9 A Rossi 	   Team Lotus 		1:44.283 70 / 74
10 J Charouz 	   Lotus Renault 	1:44.470 48 / 82
11 S Coletti 	   Toro Rosso 		1:44.545 27 / 48
12 N Berthon 	   HRT 			1:45.839 43 / 51
13 R Wickens 	   Virgin Racing 	1:45.934 32 / 34
14 C Pic 	   Virgin Racing 	1:46.348 18 / 49