Ferrari-backed Maya Weug was the fastest driver on the first day of the official F1 Academy test at the Circuito de Navarra.

The Spanish-born driver, who races for MP Motorsport in the series, was quickest in both sessions today, setting a 1m46.439s in the three-hour morning session, and then a 1m46.562s in the afternoon.

The battle for the quickest time in the morning was mainly between Mercedes’ Doriane Pin and Weug, with the Frenchwoman topping the times in the first half of the session with her 1m45.570s initially putting her half a second clear.

But at the halfway point, Weug set what would be the quickest lap of the day, putting her 0.131s ahead of Pin, with Aston Martin’s Tina Hausmann third. In a close field, the drivers behind Hausmann down to ninth place were covered by less than three tenths of a second. Williams’ Lia Block, Alpine’s Nina Gademan and Racing Bulls’ Rafaela Ferreira completed the top-six in session one.

In session two, Weug and Pin continued to battle for top spot, but McLaren’s Ella Lloyd was fastest after the first hour with a 1m46.835s.

Red Bull Ford’s Chloe Chambers took over shortly after, only for Weug to reclaim P1 with her session best of 1m46.562s. Pin ran her closer this time, and was only 0.082s behind, with Chambers third ahead of Hausmann.

“It's a new track for me and I think for a couple of others here,” Weug told the F1 Academy website. “It was a good day, I enjoyed it. I really like the track. It’s a bit small, it’s smaller than Jeddah or somewhere like that, but it’s definitely very technical. Some corners are special in a way or non-traditional, so it’s really cool.

“We've been able to do our running as we would like and of course it gives you confidence to be topping both sessions. That's what we aim to do in the rest of the season! It gives you confidence to do it in testing, although that’s not what we’re specifically looking for at the moment. The car feels good on every track so far this year, which is nice.”

The second day of testing starts at 9am local time on Wednesday, with six further hours of track action across two sessions, before the Rookie Test commences on Thursday.

For more information, visit the official series website www.f1academy.com.