Ferrari junior Charles Leclerc tops Red Bull Ring GP3 test sessions

The test is being used by teams to prepare for the next round at the Austrian venue, and punctuates the long gap between the opening round of the season at Barcelona in May and next month's return to the Red Bull Ring.

Monegasque Leclerc finished more than half a second clear on the strength of his morning time, and was then narrowly shaded by Ferrari stablemate Antonio Fuoco during the afternoon running.

The top times came during the final quarter of an hour of the morning session, with Leclerc leading ART Grand Prix team-mates Nyck de Vries and Alexander Albon.

Nirei Fukuzumi came within five hundredths of making it an ART 1-2-3-4 in the morning, but Jenzer Motorsport's Oscar Tunjo and DAMS's Barcelona poleman Jake Hughes just managed to insert their names above the Japanese on the timing screens.

Trident driver Fuoco (who was seventh in the morning) and Leclerc managed to stamp in the top two times in the afternoon during the final hour, just before a red flag to retrieve the stranded cars of Colombian duo Tunjo and Tatiana Calderon.

De Vries then continued his good day to finish the afternoon in third place, with Hughes again heading the British contingent in fourth, just fractionally clear of Matt Parry (Koiranen GP) and Fukuzumi.

Jack Aitken's best showing was eighth in the morning, while Jake Dennis - who arrived in Styria straight from the Le Mans 24 Hours test day - had a best of 14th.

The field is one down on the Barcelona series opener as Mahaveer Raghunathan - who was last in both races in Spain - has quit his seat with Koiranen to focus on his Auto GP title quest.

SESSION ONE TIMES:

SESSION TWO TIMES: