The Finn leapfrogged Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes one hour from the day's end, with the Briton's session ending prematurely after a front wing failure sent him crashing into the Turn 1 barriers.

Hamilton had previously been the first man to venture out on track and the first man to set a competitive time, and was more than five seconds clear at the head of the timesheets when he suffered the accident.
He was unable to return, but remained upbeat about the team's day one showing.

In contrast, Red Bull's reigning champion Sebastian Vettel managed just three installation laps in the final minutes of the day, while McLaren failed to get out at all.

At the time of Hamilton's crash, which came at midday, Jean-Eric Vergne had been Hamilton's closest challenger in terms of both lap count and time, even if his deficit was sizeable.