AlphaTauri hopeful Yuki Tsunoda successfully completed his maiden Formula 1 test at Imola this week.

The Japanese F2 driver completed 70 laps of the Italian circuit on Thursday, this as Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has signalled Tsunoda will replace Daniil Kvyat alongside Pierre Gasly for 2021.

And despite some morning rain making conditions a little tricky, the 20-year-old was quickly amazed by the performance of the 2018 Toro Rosso he was driving.

“Today’s session, my first time in a Formula 1 car, was great fun. It was a whole different world to the F2 car I am racing this year, especially in terms of the increased power and also the braking performance," Tsunoda commented.

“I didn’t worry about my lap times, I just focused on getting used to the F1 car and completing the 300 kilometres. I’m pleased to have managed it. I did a lot of physical training to prepare for this, but even so, I was a little bit tired at the end of the day, but very happy with the experience."

Tsunoda also spoke of the additional workload he had to deal with in the Toro Rosso versus his F2 car.

“There is so much more a driver has to do in an F1 car, but I had practiced dealing with all the extra switches on the steering wheel in the simulator," he explained.

“I have been talking with the Scuderia AlphaTauri engineers since last month when I had the seat fitting. They are a friendly group and we established a good relationship.

“Of course, when it came to discussing the Honda PU, I could talk in Japanese, which made it quite straightforward.

“Overall, the day was great fun and part of that came from having this session at the high-speed Imola track, which made it even more interesting.

“Ahead of me are two more F2 rounds, four more races and I will just concentrate on each session over the two weekends and then we can see what the result is at the end of it all.”

Also Read:

• Tsunoda's AlphaTauri hopes unchanged by Honda F1 exit
• Kvyat calm over possible AlphaTauri exit after 2020
• Horner makes it clear: Albon is 'Plan A' for Red Bull in 2021

Evaluating Tsunoda's day, AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost said: “It was a bit damp in the morning, so we started the day on full wet tyres. Even so, Yuki got immediately familiar with the car, which means that when we changed to the dry tyres he improved his lap times straight away and it was quite impressive.

“After the lunch break we continued on with new sets of tyres and he improved further, showing that he was feeling more comfortable in the car, lap by lap.

“Yuki gave valuable technical feedback regarding the behaviour of the car, which was in line with what we expected.

“In his last run, he did a race simulation and he was very consistent, which is clear evidence he had everything under control. We are looking forward to his next test in Abu Dhabi, when he will be doing the young driver test for Scuderia AlphaTauri.”

Looks like those chances of a 2021 F1 seat just grew substantially.