Learner drivers will be unable to book a driving test until Wednesday because of urgent maintenance on the booking website after it crashed at a time of unprecedented demand. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) said its driving test booking service had almost 7 million visits in 12 hours when it reopened after several months of suspension during the coronavirus lockdown. It said on Saturday that it had taken the service offline until 8am on Wednesday so essential maintenance could be carried out to help it cope with the increased demand. Gareth Llewellyn, the DVSA’s chief executive, said: “Coronavirus has severely impacted our business-as-usual operations, including by stopping driving tests in March. Since then DVSA have only been dealing with applications for emergency driving tests for critical workers. “Following unprecedented demand for the driving test booking system with almost 7m attempts to book a test when it opened, we need to carry out urgent maintenance so people can book tests. We have to close the booking service until Wednesday 26 August and are sorry for any inconvenience caused.” The DVSA driving test booking service for England and Wales reopened again at 8am on Friday after being closed since 20 March. But the agency said that by 8pm the service had been visited almost 7m times, with candidates left unable to complete their bookings. When attempting to access the application page users were met with an error message. The DVSA said 210,000 tests had been cancelled and tens of thousands more were delayed because of Covid-19. Learners whose tests were cancelled during lockdown were first invited to rebook in July. Driving tests in Scotland are due to restart from 14 September, but people are not yet able to book a slot.