Pierre Gasly claimed the top of the timesheets in this morning's free practice session in Abu Dhabi with a string of stunningly quick laps early in a cooler than usual session in the emirate, easily leading home McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne and ART teammate Nobuharu Matsushita.

The Red Bull tester set a number of quickest laps before stopping the clocks at 1:49.349 a third of the way into the session for a time which was a second faster than the best time of last year's free practice: the reigning champion pushed hard but was chasing his rival all session long, Gasly seemingly able to improve his pace at will.

Most of the field kept their powder dry ahead of this evening's qualifying, with very few drivers running off the track and no one finding the wall, to the relief of the mechanics all along the pitlane. As the temperatures crept up in the latter stages of the session there was little to bother the timesheets as most of the field concentrated on their race set ups.

Nevertheless behind the top three Alexander Rossi, Alex Lynn, Mitch Evans, Jordan King, Raffaele Marciello, Norman Nato and Arthur Pic rounded out the top ten and will be all looking to put on a show under lights in qualifying this evening.

1. Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:49.349
2. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:49.483
3. Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:49.860
4. Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:50.021
5. Alex Lynn DAMS 1:50.056
6. Mitch Evans RUSSIAN TIME 1:50.270
7. Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:50.288
8. Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:50.390
9. Norman Nato Arden International 1:50.521
10. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:50.631 19
11. André Negrao Arden International 1:50.680
12. Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:50.795
13. Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:50.825
14. Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1:51.048
15. Sergio Canamasas Daiko Team Lazarus 1:51.057
16. Dean Stoneman Carlin 1:51.070
17. Rene Binder MP Motorsport 1:51.094
18. Nicholas Latifi MP Motorsport 1:51.110
19 Oliver Rowland Status Grand Prix 1:51.158
20. Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:51.504
21. Daniiel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:52.107
22. Gustav Malja Rapax 1:52.873
23. Sean Gelael Carlin 1:53.403
24. Nathanaël Berthon Daiko Team Lazarus 1:53.876