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Prema's Callum Ilott underlined his status as one of the favourites for the Formula 3 European Championship by topping the first day of the Red Bull Ring pre-season test.

The 18-year-old Briton, a race winner at the venue in 2016, completed no serious flying laps of the Austrian circuit in the morning as the Prema Powerteam squad worked through an alternative programme.

It was just into the final hour of the afternoon session when Ilott eclipsed the previous pacesetting time of Carlin F3 rookie Lando Norris, who had headed the times in the slower morning period from team-mate Jake Dennis.

Maximilian Gunther, the 2016 F3 runner-up who is tipped by many to fight out this year's title with Prema team-mate Ilott, also beat the time of Norris.

Further showing the strength of Prema, which traditionally keeps its powder dry in testing, was the squad's Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou.

Like Ilott, the Chinese teenager completed barely any laps in the morning, but went fourth quickest in the afternoon.

Jehan Daruvala (Carlin) and Joel Eriksson (Motopark) were fifth and sixth respectively, with the top 10 completed by Ferdinand Habsburg, Marino Sato, Harrison Newey and Dennis.

In the morning session, Van Amersfoort Racing'sPedro Piquet took the third spot behind Norris and Dennis, with Eriksson, Daruvala and Habsburg rounding out the top six.

German and Italian Formula 4 runner-up Mick Schumacher ended the day 13th fastest in the fourth of the Prema cars.

The other big team, Hitech GP, lurked down the times with Nikita Mazepin quickest of the team's quartet, 14th of the 19 runners.

Testing continues for a second day at the Austrian Grand Prix venue on Wednesday.