Leclerc quickest on Day 1 of Abu Dhabi test

Leclerc, who has been linked to a Ferrari junior programme spot and a development role with Haas, was quickest in the afternoon and duly surpassed the morning benchmark, which had belonged to former Caterham protege Matt Parry, by six tenths.

Parry, running for Trident instead of his usual Koiranen squad, led a first-session top five that featured three other Brits - the Koiranen duo of Jack Aitken and Jake Hughes in second and fifth and Jake Dennis, fourth for Arden.

Ferrari junior Antonio Fuoco, who tested alongside Parry at Trident, was third, while Leclerc started his programme with a 10th place.

In the afternoon, the Monegasque was 0.022s off entering the final half-hour and then picked up the pace, ending the day almost half a second in the clear.

Fuoco took second, ahead of Dennis, Hughes and Matevos Isaakyan.

Combined timesheets

Pos.	Driver	Team	AM	PM
1	Charles Leclerc	ART Grand Prix	1:57.090	1:55.209
2	Antonio Fuoco	Trident	1:55.993	1:55.657
3	Jake Dennis	Arden International	1:56.121	1:55.760
4	Matt Parry	Trident	1:55.800	1:56.269
5	Jake Hughes	Koiranen GP	1:56.228	1:55.949
6	Jack Aitken	Koiranen GP	1:55.958	1:56.450
7	Matevos Isaakyan	Koiranen GP	1:56.829	1:55.985
8	Kevin Jorg	Trident	1:56.244	1:56.047
9	Ralph Boschung	Status Grand Prix	1:56.536	1:56.065
10	Nabil Jeffri	ART Grand Prix	1:57.275	1:56.156
11	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	2:16.963	1:56.292
12	Steijn Schothorst	Campos Racing	1:56.437	1:56.621
13	Tatiana Calderon	Status Grand Prix	1:58.004	1:56.664
14	Santino Ferrucci	Status Grand Prix	1:57.629	1:56.755
15	Will Palmer	Arden International	1:57.932	1:56.843
16	Leonardo Pulcini	Jenzer Motorsport	1:57.921	1:57.136
17	Giuliano Alesi	Arden International	1:59.175	1:57.250
18	Nico Rindlisbacher	Jenzer Motorsport	1:59.180	1:57.444
19	Pedro Cardoso	Campos Racing	1:57.793	1:57.515
20	Mahaveer Raghunathan	Campos Racing	1:58.792	1:57.705
21	Antoni Ptak	Jenzer Motorsport	1:58.557	1:57.904