F2 testing: McLaren F1 reserve Norris leads day one at Paul Ricard

The F2 rookie, who will drive for returning outfit Carlin this season, was quickest in both the rain-affected morning session and on a dry track in the afternoon, ending the day with a best effort of 1m43.095s.

Tuesday's track action marked the first collective timed test for the new halo-fitted Dallara F2 2018 car, three weeks on from the shakedown runs teams completed at Magny-Cours.

Norris topped the morning session with a 1m56.136s lap on wet tyres, ending the first half of the day nine tenths clear of his nearest rival, MP Motorsport's new signing Ralph Boschung.

The Brit was quickest for the majority of the afternoon, too, but was shuffled down the order soon after the session entered its final hour - only to quickly reclaim top spot.

Fellow McLaren junior Nyck de Vries, who joined F2's leading team Prema in the off-season, finished the day in second and was two tenths off the pace.

Norris' Carlin team-mate Sergio Sette Camara was a close third, as he had been in the morning session, despite triggering one of a number of red-flag stoppages with an off.

Luca Ghiotto was fourth on the day for Campos, ahead of ART's Mercedes-backed reigning GP3 champion George Russell and second Prema driver Sean Gelael.

Russell's ART team-mate Jack Aitken, who will act as Renault's F1 reserve this season, took seventh overall, heading Arden duo Nirei Fukuzumi (above) and Maximilian Gunther.

Williams junior Oliver Rowland, testing for DAMS in place of the injured Nicholas Latifi, made up the top 10, with Alex Albon 14th after sitting out almost the entire afternoon due to an engine change.

Ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi was 16th for MP Motorsport, while Russian Time's 2017 F2 runner-up Artem Markelov propped up the order, without a slick-tyre laptime to his name.

Morning times

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lando Norris	Carlin	1m56.136s	-	30
2	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	1m57.037s	0.901s	27
3	Sergio Sette Camara	Carlin	1m57.289s	1.153s	22
4	Alexander Albon	DAMS	1m57.357s	1.221s	28
5	Arjun Maini	Trident	1m57.591s	1.455s	36
6	Maximilian Guenther	BWT Arden	1m57.742s	1.606s	25
7	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	1m58.358s	2.222s	20
8	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1m58.619s	2.483s	19
9	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	1m58.780s	2.644s	18
10	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	1m58.899s	2.763s	25
11	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden	1m59.759s	3.623s	17
12	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Vexatec Racing	2m00.067s	3.931s	20
13	Nyck de Vries	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	2m00.088s	3.952s	11
14	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	2m00.095s	3.959s	23
15	Tadasuke Makino	RUSSIAN TIME	2m03.229s	7.093s	8
16	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	2m03.983s	7.847s	15
17	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	2m04.282s	8.146s	8
18	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	2m10.443s	14.307s	13
19	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	2m12.894s	16.758s	2

Afternoon times

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Lando Norris	Carlin	1m43.095s	-	29
2	Nyck de Vries	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	1m43.282s	0.187s	32
3	Sergio Sette Camara	Carlin	1m43.401s	0.306s	29
4	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Vexatec Racing	1m43.707s	0.612s	33
5	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1m43.745s	0.650s	20
6	Sean Gelael	Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing	1m43.844s	0.749s	40
7	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1m44.115s	1.020s	34
8	Nirei Fukuzumi	BWT Arden	1m44.232s	1.137s	35
9	Maximilian Guenther	BWT Arden	1m44.277s	1.182s	26
10	Oliver Rowland	DAMS	1m44.345s	1.250s	25
11	Arjun Maini	Trident	1m44.522s	1.427s	31
12	Ralph Boschung	MP Motorsport	1m44.603s	1.508s	28
13	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1m44.807s	1.712s	11
14	Alexander Albon	DAMS	1m44.950s	1.855s	4
15	Santino Ferrucci	Trident	1m45.023s	1.928s	25
16	Roberto Merhi	MP Motorsport	1m45.086s	1.991s	29
17	Roy Nissany	Campos Vexatec Racing	1m46.166s	3.071s	36
18	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	1m46.480s	3.385s	3
19	Tadasuke Makino	RUSSIAN TIME	1m47.050s	3.955s	11
20	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	-	-	13