Jean-Eric Vergne ends first day of testing in Abu Dhabi on top of the times

The 21-year-old Frenchman, who finished second in Formula Renault 3.5 this year and is a regular simulator driver for the team, improved on his fastest time of the morning to set a best lap of 1m40.011s during the final hour of running.

This gave him an advantage of almost a second over Ferrari test driver Jules Bianchi, who focused on aerodynamic testing today.

Robert Wickens, who beat Vergne to the Formula Renault 3.5 crown in 2011, was third fastest on his first test for Renault, lapping just a tenth faster than best newcomer, Fabio Leimer, who adapted well to the step up to F1 machinery after racing in GP2 this year.

He ended the day sixth tenths of a second quicker than McLaren's Gary Paffett, who shared the day with Oliver Turvey.

Max Chilton, testing for Force India after previous straightline experience, jumped to sixth place with his best time in the final minute of the day to pip Valtteri Bottas by just one tenth of a second.

The Finn lost several hours of running with a gearbox problem that is still being investigated by Williams. The car returned to the track in the later afternoon after the gearbox was changed.

Despite this problem, he impressed the team with his approach and improved to a 1m43.118s in the closing stages of running. This put him ahead of McLaren's morning driver Turvey and Mercedes tester Sam Bird.

On his first full F1 test, Stefano Coletti (Scuderia Toro Rosso) finished 11th behind Team Lotus returnee Rodolfo Gonzalez.

GP2 race-winner Dani Clos returned to F1 testing action for the first time in two years, completing a day of running for HRT. He was just five hundredths of a second off Coletti's time.

Charles Pic, who is set to race for Virgin next year, had his first experience of Formula 1 with the team this afternoon. He took over the car from Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, who set his time during his 32 laps of running in the morning.

Pic completed a total of 30 laps, focusing on familiarising himself with the car and some short aero runs. He will return for a full day of running with the team tomorrow.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver               Team                  Time      Laps
 1.  Jean-Eric Vergne     Red Bull-Renault      1m40.011s   83
 2.  Jules Bianchi        Ferrari               1m40.960s   85
 3.  Robert Wickens       Renault               1m42.217s   78
 4.  Fabio Leimer         Sauber-Ferrari        1m42.331s   67
 5.  Gary Paffett         McLaren-Mercedes      1m42.912s   41
 6.  Max Chilton          Force India-Mercedes  1m43.016s   81
 7.  Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Cosworth     1m43.118s   71
 8.  Oliver Turvey        McLaren-Mercedes      1m43.502s   35
 9.  Sam Bird             Mercedes GP           1m43.548s   51
10.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Lotus-Renault         1m44.022s   87
11.  Stefano Coletti      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m45.278s   87
12.  Dani Clos            HRT-Cosworth          1m45.329s   68
13.  Charles Pic          Virgin-Cosworth       1m46.930s   30
14.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Virgin-Cosworth       1m47.292s   32

All Timing Unofficial