Red Bull protégé Pierre Gasly (right) concluded this week's pre-season testing on top of the timesheets: he lapped the Spanish track in an impressive laptime of 1:27.386 during this morning's session ahead of Norman Nato and Antonio Giovinazzi. Rapax driver Gustav Malja was quickest in the afternoon session.

Day 3 opened this morning under blue skies with cold temperatures. When the pitlane turned green, Status Grand Prix's Meindert van Buuren was the first man to feed onto the track on Hard Pirelli tyres. In the opening stages, Danïel de Jong set the early pace in a 1:30.121 but Nicholas Latifi was the first man to dip under 1m30s to take the top honours.

Forty minutes into the session, Sergey Sirotkin improved on the Canadian's time to go P1. However, Nato topped the timesheet with a laptime of 1:28.170 - +0.070s ahead of Russian Sirotkin. After one hour, DAMS' Alex Lynn broke the 1m28s barrier on Soft Pirelli tyres and lapped the Spanish track in a 1:27.841.

Just before mid-session, there was a short red flag period courtesy of Sirtokin who span into the gravel bed at the end of the main straight. At the restart, Gasly improved on his personal best set yesterday and clocked in a laptime of 1:27.386, also on Soft tyres. Nato reduced the gap enough to edge Giovinazzi out of P2 – two tenth slower than Gasly.

Soon after, Giovinazzi caused a second red flag period after he stopped at the entrance of Turn 4. The remainder of the session was trouble-free and Gasly remained unchallenged until the chequered flag. Behind the Frenchman, Nato, Giovinazzi, Lynn, Luca Ghiotto, De Jong, Mitch Evans, Latifi, Jordan King and Sirotkin rounded out the top ten.

In the afternoon, Raffaele Marciello was first out on track. Arthur Pic set the early pace in a 1:29.941 on Prime tyres. One hour into the session, the proceedings were halted for a third time following small contact between Marciello and Rene Binder.

The final hours of testing were studious with drivers completing long runs and teams working on pit stop practice. In the closing stages, Markelov went quickest in a 1:29.425 ahead of Pic. Fifteen minutes before the end of the session, van Buuren stopped at Turn 12 causing one last red flag period. In the dying minutes, Malja put his head down to clock in a laptime of 1:28.719, which was enough to go top. Fellow countryman Jimmy Eriksson also found some extra pace to edge Markelov out of P2.

At the chequered flag, behind the Swedish pair of Malja (lower right) and Eriksson, Markelov, Oliver Rowland, Sergio Canamasas, Pic, van Buuren, Nabil Jeffri, Lynn and Binder completed the top ten.

This concludes the first 2016 pre-season test session at Barcelona. Next stop will be Jerez de la Frontera on March 29-30-31.

Morning results

1. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:27.386
2. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:27.630
3. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:27.755
4. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:27.841
5. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:27.884
6. Danïel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:27.977
7. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:28.022
8. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:28.067
9. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:28.122
10. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:28.122
11. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:28.150
12. Rene Binder Carlin 1:28.240
13. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.296
14. Gustav Malja Carlin 1:28.335
15. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:28.421
16. Sergio Canamasas Status Grand Prix 1:28.491
17. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:28.599
18. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:28.744
19. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:28.871
20. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:29.433
21. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:29.450
22. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:29.662
23. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:29.755
24. Meindert van Buuren Status Grand Prix 1:30.007

Afternoon results

1. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:28.719
2. Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1:29.263
3. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:29.425
4. Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1:29.474
5. Sergio Canamasas Status Grand Prix 1:29.586
6. Arthur Pic Rapax 1:29.678
7. Meindert van Buuren Status Grand Prix 1:30.555
8. Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1:31.845
9. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:32.723
10. Rene Binder Carlin 1:32.779
11. Luca Ghiotto Trident 1:32.836
12. Pierre Gasly PREMA Racing 1:33.062
13. Danïel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:33.249
14. Marvin Kirchhöfer Carlin 1:33.317
15. Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1:33.534
16. Mitch Evans Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:33.596
17. Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam Campos Racing 1:33.616
18. Antonio Giovinazzi PREMA Racing 1:33.669
19. Philo Paz Armand Trident 1:33.695
20. Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1:33.883
21. Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1:33.968
22. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:34.247
23. Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1:34.296
24. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:34.331