After a winter of anticipation, Formula One racing’s new generation of 1.6-litre turbocharged cars were put through their paces for the first time on Tuesday as pre-season testing got under way in Jerez.

At the end of a day that saw limited running as teams battled to get to grips with the radically different systems on their new machines, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen emerged at the top of the timesheets in Spain.

Raikkonen completed 31 laps - the most of anyone - and set a best time of 1m 27.104s as the Italian team did some aerodynamic mapping and checked the functionality of the F14 T’s on-board systems.

“We had a lot of new things to learn today,” said the Finn. "Even if we would have liked to do more laps, I think that for a first day it was alright. Towards the end, when the track was damp, we chose not to take any risks. Now we have a lot of work ahead of us, but all in all, we are pleased with our first day.”