Esteban Ocon described his first day of testing for Mercedes as "amazing" as the Frenchman set the second fastest time on Tuesday.
Having originally been scheduled to drive for Mercedes during the Barcelona test, Ocon had to wait until Silverstone after the team drafted in Pascal Wehrlein to finish its test schedule. On his first day in the car on Tuesday, Ocon was second quickest in the dry morning session and also completed a number of laps in the wet as he got to grips with the W07.
"Amazing," Ocon said when asked about his first impressions of the car. "It was great to have the opportunity. Tricky conditions this afternoon though, some points it was drying and we were expecting slicks and then it went to inters… but we kept working on the car, making the most of how the track was. That was important to keep working in all of the conditions."
Ocon felt he got up to speed quickly which allowed him to provide better feedback to the Mercedes engineers during the morning session.
"Took me a few runs, obviously it is still new to drive an F1 car at Silverstone with all the fast corners, it takes a bit of time. I had a few sets of medium tyres so by the end I think I was quite close to the limit which was a nice feeling.
"You need to get close to the pace to start working well. It didn’t take a lot of time to adapt which was nice."
And asked if he had received any feedback from Mercedes, Ocon replied: "They were really happy with what I have done. So if they are happy I am happy."
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