Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc capped off what he branded an ’emotional’ first day with the team as a race driver by finishing as fastest man.

Ferrari got their testing campaign off to a great start on Monday as Sebastian Vettel completed 169 laps and finished at the top of the leaderboard; a day he claimed was ‘near perfection’.

Continuing Ferrari’s smooth start, Charles Leclerc’s first day of pre-season testing with his new team went similarly well. The Monegasque put in a similarly marathon 157 laps and could have even exceeded Vettel’s lapcount had the session not been immediately red-flagged at 9.01am due to Albon’s spin.

His best time, set on the C3 tyre, was 1:18.247 – less than a tenth off Vettel’s pace on the same tyre on Monday.

“I am very happy with the way today went.” he said.

“Despite some red flag interruptions, we were able to get through all our programme and to do 157 laps, which has produced a lot of useful data. In terms of feeling, I quickly felt comfortable with the SF90 and I have to say I really enjoyed myself.”

Asked about whether he felt any emotion at being able to fulfil a childhood dream by stepping into a Ferrari as a ‘real’ driver for the team, he said: “There’s always going to be some when you get into a Ferrari, but today I put that to one side because I had a job to do for the team. Let’s hope we keep going like this over the next few days, because it’s important to make the most of the few on-track testing opportunities we have.”