Nathanaël Berthon thoroughly enjoyed his first full day of F1 track action at Yas Marina, despite admitting that he would have enjoyed more time at the wheel. The 22-year-old also admits that, due to his height, fitting into the cockpit came with difficulty.
Berthon, who this season drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 finale but was the innocent victim in a large accident at Barcelona, spent Thursday acclimatising to the HRT car, particularly setting up its control systems and the Pirelli tyres. This came after nine laps on Wednesday, which served as an introductory period.
“Today was a great experience but it felt like it was too short,” said Berthon, who hails from Romagnat in central France. “I would like to spend some more time in the car but, as a first step, it was very good.
“I’m very tall and the fitting wasn’t ideal, but I think that my performance was good. The engineers told me that they were really satisfied with the test; this will serve me well for the future and it is in Formula 1 where I want to be, once the moment comes.
“The thing which surprised me the most about the experience wasn’t the car itself, but everything that surrounds it - it’s really impressive to see how many different things the team works on and all the data they look at is incredible. As for the car, it is much more balanced than GP2, the braking is good and my favourite thing is the steering wheel, which is really light.”
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| Pos. | Driver | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  J. Vergne | 01:38.917 | 46 |
| 2. | S. Bird | 01:40.897 | 104 |
| 3. | J. Bianchi | 01:41.347 | 106 |
| 4. | O. Turvey | 01:41.513 | 89 |
| 5. | M. Chilton | 01:41.575 | 79 |
| 6. | E. Gutiérrez | 01:42.049 | 77 |
| 7. | M. Bortolotti | 01:43.277 | 74 |
| 8. | K. Ceccon | 01:43.686 | 35 |
| 9. | A. Rossi | 01:44.283 | 74 |
| 10. | J. Charouz | 01:44.470 | 82 |
| Full results | |||
| Nathanael Berthon | |||
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| More Nathanael Berthon photos | |||
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