Pulling hails ‘productive’ Yas Marina debut after setting the pace on Day 1

Abbi Pulling was the driver to beat on the opening day of in-season testing, hitting the ground running by topping both the first morning and afternoon sessions around the Yas Marina Circuit.

Despite it being her debut appearance at the Abu Dhabi track, Pulling quickly found her feet. The Alpine driver went quickest in the morning on a 1:57.630 and followed that up with a 1:56.505 late on in the afternoon.

Speaking after the day’s running, she was delighted by the initial progress made and noted how she and her Rodin Motorsport team are working in unison to extract every second possible.

“I’m really happy with myself and how I've gotten used to the track because it's my first time here,” Pulling said. “Me and the team, we obviously prep well, but it's always the unknown. I’m really happy with how the team’s doing and how they’ve got on top of the track really quickly, listened to my feedback and we’ve tried things. We’ve seen what’s worked, what’s not worked and had a really, really productive Day 1.

“We saved a set of tyres compared to a few of the others as we’ve got a different run plan going through the weekend. To start off how we have is super, super positive and hopefully, we can continue to build. But there are still two days to go, the gaps are going to be so close. I’m just enjoying myself and enjoying being back.”

Although the simulator helped her get acquainted with the circuit’s layout, Pulling’s first real-life impression proved to be much different to what she’d expected. Dealing with variable track conditions throughout and tyre management, the Briton is relishing the challenge of trying to find the ever-changing limit.

“In all honesty, doing it on the simulator, it was a bit laborious because the conditions are the same lap in, lap out,” she admitted. “Whereas actually driving it, it does feel a lot busier, and the track is constantly changing. We’ve got a lot of tyre deg, so managing that has been quite fun.

READ MORE: Pulling sweeps Day 1 of running in Abu Dhabi test

“That’s probably something that I enjoy the most. I think people probably enjoy Quali and this and that, but I really enjoy managing a tyre and getting the most out of it when you shouldn’t really still be on it.

“The track is really fun. It’s got a little bit of everything — high speed, low speed, long straights into a tight corner, long straights into high-load corners. Something that’s been fun to manage is from this morning to this afternoon. The sun has moved, there are quite a lot of shadows here, so the track temperatures are different in all different sectors, especially the bridge in Sector 3 where the hotel is.

“It’s really strange, so I’ve really enjoyed seeing how that’s evolved through the day and that will only help us make some mental notes that will help us going into the race weekend depending on what time of day we’re on track.”

Unlike Round 5 in Singapore, this visit presents valuable testing time before the race weekend commences in December and Pulling is determined to make the most of the opportunity for mileage.

She explained: “We’re always looking for that last little bit every time — percent after percent as a driver, but also as a team. To get this testing, we can really say that we’re absolutely on the limit of everything.

“In Singapore, with the limited running, everyone’s finding their feet and still building up to it. Even by the time they get to the races, there are still little things that people maybe are finding. So, going into the race weekend here, no one’s got any excuses.”

Locking in her run plans for Day 2, Pulling has her focus on her one-lap pace first thing, but in the afternoon, there will a bigger focus in play rather than outright times.

“We’re going to be doing performance runs, but also lots of race runs in the afternoon,” she explained. “We’re probably not going to set the world alight on the timesheets in the afternoon as we’ll solely be focusing on race runs.

“Then in the morning, we’ll be doing a Quali simulation, so that’s why we saved the tyres. The team and I saw it as the most productive thing, especially tomorrow. Doing a Quali simulation with no warm-up laps prior, it’s the best thing to mentally prepare and simulate the pressure a little bit.”