Natalia Granada set the pace on day one of the F1 ACADEMY in-season test at Circuito de Navarra.
The Sephora-backed driver set a 1m46.906s, narrowly beating the fastest time of the morning session of a 1m46.926s which was set by Ferrari-backed Alba Larsen.
Emma Felbermayr was second-fastest in both sessions, with the Audi-backed driver just 0.009 seconds slower than pace-setter Larsen in the morning.
Championship leader Alisha Palmowski didn’t take part in the first day of testing due to travel disruptions.
For more information, visit the official series website www.f1academy.com.
Morning session: Larsen leads Felbermayr in tight first test
Larsen led the way in the day one morning session, as the 17-year-old set a time of 1m46.926s to lead Felbermayr by less than one hundredth of a second.
Felbermayr had set the early pace before Lisa Billard went to the top for Gatorade operated by Prema, setting three consecutive fastest laps and improving the benchmark by half a second.
Felbermayr returned to the top by just 0.021s with just under an hour to go, before trading fastest laps with McLaren’s Ella Lloyd roughly a quarter of an hour later.
With half an hour on the clock, Larsen went to the top of the timings, setting a time half a tenth clear of Felbermayr.
The Austrian was able to improve her time and even thought she had set the fastest lap of the session with her final attempt, but her time of 1m46.787s was invalidated due to track limits.
Lloyd was third with Granada fourth and early pace-setter Billard fifth. Ella Stevens, Rafaela Ferreira and Nina Gademan followed, before Jade Jacquet led a group of four drivers all within a tenth of a second. The top 15 drivers were covered by 0.909s.
Afternoon session: Granada sets the day one pace
Granada set the fastest time of day one in the afternoon session, as her effort of 1m46.906s was enough to beat Felbermayr to top spot by 0.187s.
Rachel Robertson was the early pace-setter before Jacquet went to the top 15 mins in with a 1m47.930s.
Minutes later, Felbermayr continued to show her class by going 0.222s clear, only to improve upon her own time twice in the next 10 minutes.
With almost an hour remaining in the session, Granada went to the top of the leaderboard, becoming the first driver in the 1m46s’ in the afternoon.
Two red flags would interrupt the afternoon session, first for Jacquet who found the gravel at Turn 14 and then a second with 15 minutes on the clock for a stationary Billard.
Once running was back underway, nobody could knock Granada from the top of the timings, with Felbermayr and Robertson completing the top three ahead of Billard and Ferreira.
Lloyd ended an encouraging first day in sixth, ahead of Jacquet and MP team-mates Gademan and Larsen. Mercedes-backed Payton Westcott completed the top 10. Once more, the top 15 drivers were all covered by a second.
Photo: Anni Graf / Getty Images