Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello leads Formula Renault 3.5 test

This year's Formula 3 European champion's Strakka entry spent several spells at the top throughout the day, as he was able to respond every time somebody knocked him off of top spot.

In the morning session he took control halfway through and then continued to improve in the run up to the lunchbreak, while in the afternoon he appeared to have things well under control until a late serge from Lotus junior Esteban Ocon.

Ocon - who admitted he was tiring towards the end of the day - briefly appeared to have stolen the Italian's fire as he was the first driver to get into the 1m39s.

But he ended the test third as Marciello and Sauber 2014 Formula 1 prospect Sergey Sirotkin improved in the closing minutes.

FR Eurocup runner-up Oliver Rowland also showed good pace as he took fourth on the day, meaning Fortec Motorsports had two cars in the top four thanks to the Briton and Sirotkin.

Recent single-seater returnee Dean Stoneman was in action with Carlin and was 17th in the afternoon.

2011 Formula 2 champion Mirko Bortolotti also returned to single-seaters after winning this year's Eurocup Megane Trophy. The Italian drove for Draco and set the 22nd-fastest time.

Combined testing classification:

Pos  Driver              Team            Time       Gap
 1.  Raffaele Marciello  Strakka         1m39.258s
 2.  Sergey Sirotkin     Fortec          1m39.841s  +0.583s
 3.  Esteban Ocon        Lotus           1m39.985s  +0.727s
 4.  Oliver Rowland      Fortec          1m40.022s  +0.764s
 5.  Matias Laine        Strakka         1m40.123s  +0.865s
 6.  Zoel Amberg         DAMS            1m40.375s  +1.117s
 7.  Pietro Fantin       Draco           1m40.412s  +1.154s
 8.  Jack Aitken         Arden Caterham  1m40.540s  +1.282s
 9.  Luca Ghiotto        Pons            1m40.778s  +1.520s
10.  Jazeman Jaafar      Tech 1          1m40.847s  +1.589s
11.  Marlon Stockinger   Lotus           1m40.881s  +1.623s
12.  Will Buller         Arden Caterham  1m40.890s  +1.632s
13.  Alex Lynn           DAMS            1m40.948s  +1.690s
14.  Mathieu Vaxiviere   Pons            1m40.955s  +1.697s
15.  Pierre Gasly        Tech 1          1m41.027s  +1.769s
16.  Felix Rosenqvist    ISR             1m41.090s  +1.832s
17.  Dean Stoneman       Carlin          1m41.183s  +1.925s
18.  Riccardo Agostini   AV              1m41.226s  +1.968s
19.  Jake Dennis         SMP/Comtec      1m41.342s  +2.084s
20.  Matt Parry          Carlin          1m41.450s  +2.192s
21.  Nikolay Martsenko   Zeta            1m41.510s  +2.252s
22.  Mirko Bortolotti    Draco           1m41.596s  +2.338s
23.  Roman Mavlanov      Zeta            1m41.839s  +2.581s
24.  Antonio Fuoco       AV              1m41.994s  +2.736s
25.  Dennis Olsen        SMP/Comtec      1m42.380s  +3.122s
26.  Andrea Pizzitola    AV              1m42.812s  +3.554s
27.  Sandy Stuvik        Zeta            1m44.252s  +4.994s