Quaife-Hobbs pleased with Virgin run

The 20-year-old Briton, who drives for Virgin's GP3 arm Manor Racing, completed 146 kilometres of trouble-free running.

"It has been an incredibly special day for me," said Quaife-Hobbs. "Driving a Formula 1 car is what you always dream of from the moment you start karting, so it has been fantastic to finally experience that. I completed a lot of runs for the team and helped them to collect a lot of data.

"I can't thank Marussia Virgin Racing enough for this amazing opportunity, as it really allows me to gain experience and see how a Formula 1 team works. Experiences like this only make you hungry for more and it's exciting to get a taste of what the future could hold."

Team boss John Booth said the test had also given Virgin a chance to tackle some of the issues with its latest upgrade that held it back in Turkey.

"Overall it has been a very productive test for us, with the Idiada proving ground providing us with excellent conditions with which to test the updated package that we introduced at the last race," said Booth.

"As we might have expected in its debut outing, we experienced a few teething problems in Istanbul and this test has provided us with the opportunity to understand more of the potential of the developments. We're looking forward to seeing further signs of progress in Spain next week."