On the third and final day of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone it was Sebastian Vettel who topped the timesheets for Red Bull, the defending world champion having spent his afternoon behind the wheel undertaking tyre tests for Pirelli.

Preceding Vettel in the RB9 was Carlos Sainz Jr., completing his second half day of testing at Silverstone. On Thursday, the Spanish racer was second for Toro Rosso. In the senior team Sainz Jr. managed a more than respectable fourth, with a 1m33.546s lap that put him behind two current race drivers – one a triple world champion – and Nicolas Prost, who finished the day third for Lotus.

Prost was behind the wheel of the E21 for a second day, having driven for Lotus on Wednesday. Despite impressing on his debut, Prost found an extra 1.5 seconds between Wednesday and Friday, fastest of the young drivers at the test with a 1m33.256s lap – three-tenths faster than the celebrated Sainz Jr.

At the end of the morning session it was another race journalist who topped the timesheets; Adrian Sutil was undertaking tyre evaluation work and managed a best lap of 1m33.242s, fast enough to keep the Force India driver in second place when the chequered flag fell to mark the end of the test.

In the late afternoon, Sutil handed the VJM06 back to James Calado, one of only two drivers to take part in all three days of the test. The young Briton managed only five laps before time was called on the session, and finished the day ahead of only Jules Bianchi, who was testing tyres with Marussia.

Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne, Giedo van der Garde, and Charles Pic completed the list of race drivers undertaking tyre evaluation work on Friday.

Susie Wolff made headlines by taking part in her first full test for Williams; while the Scottish racer has undertaken straight-line aerodynamic testing for the team, the 89 laps she completed on Friday will have been a vital step towards her stated goal of acquiring an FIA superlicense.

Wolff ended the day ninth on the timesheets, with a fastest lap of 1m35.093s, eight-tenths down on Gary Paffett, who managed eighth for McLaren after 77 laps of Silverstone. Paffett lost a lot of time to an engine problem in the morning, with only six laps under his belt when the team broke for lunch.

The big incident of the day came about courtesy of Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat, who beached his car in the gravel after 22 laps, bringing out a red flag and ending his run in the process.

Davide Rigon completed a third day of running for Ferrari, and finished the day in fifth on the timesheets with a 1m33.592s lap set in a truncated morning session before Massa took over. Rodolfo Gonzalez made a second – short – appearance for Marussia, setting a 1m36.339s lap that saw the Venezuelan end the day’s running in 14th.

Kimiya Sato made his debut for Sauber, finishing a respectable 13th after 67 laps with a fastest time of 1m35.642s. 

YDT times (unofficial, via Autosport)

1. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) 1m32.894s [79 laps]
2. Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1m33.242s [99 laps]
3. Nicolas Prost (Lotus) 1m33.256s [83 laps]
4. Carlos Sainz Jr. (Red Bull) 1m33.546s [35 laps]
5. Davide Rigon (Ferrari) 1m33.592s [20 laps]
6. Felipe Massa (Ferrari) 1m33.624s [69 laps]
7. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) 1m33.647s [42 laps]
8. Gary Paffett (McLaren) 1m34.294s [77 laps]
9. Susie Wolff (Williams) 1m35.093s [89 laps]
10. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham) 1m35.155s [85 laps]
11. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 1m35.281s [22 laps]
12. Charles Pic (Caterham) 1m35.576s [60 laps]
13. Kimiya Sato (Sauber) 1m35.642s [67 laps]
14. Rodolfo Gonzalez (Marussia) 1m36.339s [24 laps]
15. James Calado (Force India) 1m36.451s [5 laps]
16. Jules Bianchi (Marussia) 1m36.744s [39 laps]