Kimi Antonelli was behind-the-wheel of the W17 in the morning, with George Russell getting laps in the afternoon.

The Italian was the first car on the damp track as the pitlane opened; after some initial Intermediate tyre running, he switched to the C3 Soft and then the C1 Hard compounds and completed 56 laps ahead of lunch. George took over for the afternoon and logged a further 95 laps, taking the team's total to 151 laps and just over 700km of running on the day.

"It was nice to be back in the car this morning and, more importantly, we've had a productive first day here," said Antonelli. "There is lots for us to learn with these new machines so it's important that we complete as much mileage as we can and build our knowledge. The team at Brackley and Brixworth have done a great job to get us to this position, developing and building a car that has been able to complete over 150 laps on its first proper day of running.

"It is early days though," he added. "There will be things we discover in the coming days that we can improve but that is the point of testing. For now, though, the package overall feels good, and we will look to build on this start over the following two days of running we're allowed here in Barcelona."

"It's great to be back out on track driving an F1 car once again!" said Russell. "The cars looked really cool out on the circuit and that's positive for our sport. They are quite different for us as drivers but, once you get your head around it, driving them is quite intuitive. It's enjoyable being behind-the-wheel and I think there's a lot for fans to look forward to with these new regulations.

"We are pleased with our day, but I've also been impressed by several other teams too. The Red Bull power unit has completed a lot of laps which, given that it's their first engine they've built, means they've clearly done a good job. Haas also managed a similar amount of running to ourselves, so the Ferrari power unit has also put together plenty of mileage. It's not quite how it was in 2014! The sport has evolved so much since then and the level, in every single aspect, is so high now."

"We are happy with how today went overall," said Andrew Shovlin. "The main thing we are looking for in the early running of any new car is to make sure we can get plenty of laps in. That enables us to get into the learning of our programme in subsequent days. Today was all about understanding the car, therefore, making sure it stabilised at the correct temperatures, and ensure we could do our long runs. It is positive that we were able to achieve that.

"It has been a monumental project to get this car ready both on the chassis and Power Unit side; at Brixworth they have been working on this for years. We don't know where we stand in terms of performance, but we've proved we are able to keep the car out on the track and that is testament to the hard work of everyone at both our factories."

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