Max Chilton admits he was a little nervous ahead of his first competitive outing for Marussia as he put the MR01 through its paces in Friday's first practice.
Handed the opportunity ahead of next week's Young Driver test as the Yas Marina circuit, the 21-year-old, whose programme consisted of first engine mapping and then data collection, covered 22 laps.
Chilton's best time was a 1:48.887, which was just under a second short of team-mate Timo Glock's time for that session.
"My FP1 session went just as well as I could have hoped for," said Chilton, who is eager to secure a Marussia race seat for next season. "I haven't stopped smiling all day.
"I have been looking forward to this opportunity for a few weeks now, but when the moment came - with all the pressure - I admit that I was a little nervous.
"I wanted everything to go well and to have as much track time as possible. In the end, due to the tyre life situation, we built up to two longer runs of eight laps each, where I was able to work on some pretty demanding testing items, procedures and systems.
"On the first run I was very happy to improve immediately - and keep improving. I was hoping to do that again on the second run but unfortunately I was blocked by traffic from a HRT car. There was definitely more to come though and that is the only small frustration in an otherwise memorable day.
"The team were very supportive and thanks to my engineering team and car crew today, who made me feel right at home."
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