User testing quick links

I am user testing a new quick links section on the homepage that links to the most visited sections on the site. The links include news, education, forms etc.

I am trying to understand the best way to structure the user test. I will ask the participant for their first impressions and see if the quick links section stands out to them. Also as a task, I will also ask them to navigate to the forms section from the homepage and see if they use the quick links.

If however they use the navigation in the header to go to the form page and not the quick links, is it best practice to then take them back to the homepage and ask if they could think of another way they could have got to the form page or does this interfere with the test and their first attempt is the only valid attempt?

Should I even build the navigation path to the forms page in the prototype as the alternative. Is this a distraction or an opportunity to see how the participant behaves?