Nobuharu Matsushita dominated day 1 of post-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit: the Japanese ace set the quickest laptime of both sessions at the wheel of his ART Grand Prix car. Nicholas Latifi and Pierre Gasly completed the top 3.

Day 1 of post-season testing opened this morning with the twenty-four drivers on Pirelli Medium tyres. After a series of installation laps; thirty minutes into the session, Matsushita set the best laptime in a 1:49.180, three tenths quicker than teammate Oliver Rowland. Alex Lynn moved up to P2 on the one hour mark with Norman Nato also able to improve enough to edge out Rowland from P3.

The proceedings were briefly red flagged to collect some debris after Campos' Sean Gelael clipped the barrier at turn 19. The Indonesian driver was able to re-join the pits. The rest of the session ran smoothly until the chequered flag and Matsushita's laptime remained unchallenged. Behind the top three, Rowland, Pierre Gasly (on newcomers PREMA Racing's car), Nicholas Latifi (DAMS), Tio Ellinas (RUSSIAN TIME), André Negrao (Rapax), Richie Stanaway (Carlin), and Nick Yelloly (MP Motorsport) completed the top ten.

It was night time when the pitlane went green again. Jordan King set the early pace, but Matsushita returned to P1 with a 1:48.909 - four tenths better than his teammate Rowland who moved up to P2. The Brit then found some extra pace reducing the gap to the Japanese, but not enough to claim the top spot.

Thirty minutes into the session, Stanaway moved up to P1 with a laptime one tenth better than Matsushita, but Latifi edged the Kiwi out with a laptime of a 1:48.418. Gasly also improved and moved up to P2 whilst Yelloly climbed up to P3. With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Matsushita put his down and dipped under 1m48s setting a laptime half a second better than Latifi.

At the chequered flag, Gasly finished third ahead of Rowland, Artem Markelov, Yelloly, Nato, Stanaway, Dean Stoneman (Carlin) and Negrao.

Morning results

1. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:49.180
2. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:49.304
3. Norman Nato Arden International 1:49.479
4. Oliver Rowland ART Grand Prix 1:49.501
5. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:49.508
6. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:49.792
7. Tio Ellinas RUSSIAN TIME 1:49.816
8. André Negrao Rapax 1:49.821
9. Richie Stanaway Carlin 1:49.837
10. Nick Yelloly MP Motorsport 1:50.067
11. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:50.078
12. Sergey Sirotkin Racing Engineering 1:50.200
13. Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:50.244
14. Felix Rosenqvist Status Grand Prix 1:50.264
15. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:50.429
16. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:50.543
17. Jimmy Eriksson Trident 1:50.739
18. Pascal Wehrlein PREMA Racing 1:51.022
19. Gustav Malja Arden International 1:51.032
20. Konstantin Tereshchenko Campos Racing 1:51.257
21. Alex Fontana Rapax 1:51.309
22. Richard Gonda MP Motorsport 1:51.745
23 Sean Gelael Campos Racing 1:52.340
24. Philo Armand Status Grand Prix 1:54.167

Afternoon results

1. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:47.903
2. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:48.418
3. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:48.437
4. Oliver Rowland ART Grand Prix 1:48.454
5. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:48.581
6. Nick Yelloly MP Motorsport 1:48.744
7. Norman Nato Arden International 1:48.780
8. Richie Stanaway Carlin 1:48.791
9. Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:48.865
10. André Negrao Rapax 1:48.875
11. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:48.943
12. Tio Ellinas RUSSIAN TIME 1:48.997
13. Felix Rosenqvist Status Grand Prix 1:49.165
14. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:49.213
15. Sergey Sirotkin Racing Engineering 1:49.223
16. Gustav Malja Arden International 1:49.423
17. Alex Fontana Rapax 1:49.747
18. Pascal Wehrlein PREMA Racing 1:50.030
19. Jimmy Eriksson Trident 1:50.110
20. Sean Gelael Campos Racing 1:50.491
21. Richard Gonda MP Motorsport 1:50.536
22. Philo Armand Status Grand Prix 1:51.558
23. Konstantin Tereshchenko Campos Racing 1:51.607
24. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:52.515