Scott Speed finally got the chance to prove he deserves a third driver role at Red Bull in testing at Silverstone today.
The American is in line to become third driver for Red Bull in Canada and Indianapolis as the team look to boost Formula One’s profile in the United States.
Speed, who is backed by Red Bull in the GP2 Series, saw his planned test on Wednesday cancelled due to bad weather but he finally got behind the wheel of a Formula One car today to clock 18 laps on another day interrupted by rain.
He was the slowest of the 12 drivers on show, with his best lap over six seconds down on pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen and three seconds off team-mate Christian Klien, although changeable conditions made it hard to compare times.
The Toyota pair of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli posted encouraging times to claim second and third respectively.