“Incredible” was the word on everyone’s lips at Silverstone on Thursday as Virgin Racing watched the VR-01 race car pull away for its very first lap of a race track.

Hot on the heels of Wednesday’s public debut, Timo Glock was in the hot seat of “his new baby” as the team began a two-day shakedown with a few exploratory laps of the Stowe circuit.

As the team prepared the car for action, an impatient Timo and his team-mate Lucas di Grassi revved up the crowd with some pretty hot recce laps in the boss’s Nissan GTR. Then, with the pre-flight checks completed, Timo finally got to grips with the VR-01.

“After 10 challenging months, all the commitment and determination has finally paid off. Today was all about those tentative first few steps but the programme really gets underway tomorrow with a full day of on-track evaluation for both Timo and Lucas,” said Nick Wirth, Virgin Racing’s Technical Director.

So did Timo enjoy the ride?

“It was a fantastic moment for myself and the whole team to see the VR-01 come alive. It’s great to be back in a racing car.”