Niko Kari’s first day of testing Trident’s GP3/16 machinery ended with the Finn topping the timesheets in Abu Dhabi, as the final sessions with the car began before FIA Formula 3’s introduction.
Kari set a time of 1m53.890s in the afternoon of the first of three post-season sessions to finish 0.571s clear of MP Motorsport’s Jehan Daruvala on his return to third-tier machinery after racing with the Dutch outfit in F2.
Daruvala previously went quickest in the morning with a 1m54.737s lap, with Kari in third, but all-but three drivers improved their efforts later in the day.
Sebastian Fernandez finished third for Campos, with Devlin DeFrancesco fourth above David Beckmann.
Japanese F4 title-winner Yuki Tsunoda made his debut ahead of a 2019 FIA F3 seat with Jenzer with sixth, with British F3 champion Linus Lundqvist seventh and Jannes Fittje eighth.
Logan Sargeant and Oscar Piastri completed the top 10.
Euroformula Open champion Felipe Drugovich was 11th for ART, with Formula Renault Eurocup title-winner Max Fewtrell 13th in the second session.
Charouz completed its first laps in testing ahead of its third section of F1 motorsport ladder move, having an operation run by departing Arden, with Fabio Scherer 17th, Marcus Armstrong 19th and Lirim Zendeli 20th.
Day two of testing will involve European F3 race-winner Enaam Ahmed replacing Beckmann at ART, while Federico Malvestiti takes part with Jenzer.
Lorenzo Colombo and Yifei Ye, and Ferrari junior Robert Schwartzman, will also make their testing debuts, with the duo at MP and the latter at Charouz.
Overall times:
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Morning | Laps | Afternoon | Laps |
| 1 | Niko Kari | Trident | 1m55.174s | 18 | 1m53.890s | 18 |
| 2 | Jehan Daruvala | MP | 1m54.737s | 20 | 1m54.461s | 34 |
| 3 | Sebastian Fernandez | Campos | 1m55.730s | 27 | 1m54.708s | 28 |
| 4 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Trident | 1m55.087s | 25 | 1m54.897s | 21 |
| 5 | David Beckmann | ART | 1m55.501s | 25 | 1m54.957s | 30 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Jenzer | 1m55.357s | 34 | 1m55.043s | 29 |
| 7 | Linus Lundqvist | MP | 1m56.194s | 29 | 1m55.070s | 29 |
| 8 | Jannes Fittje | Jenzer | 1m55.679s | 31 | 1m55.305s | 31 |
| 9 | Logan Sargeant | MP | 1m55.684s | 22 | 1m55.342s | 34 |
| 10 | Oscar Piastri | Trident | 1m55.702s | 27 | 1m55.355s | 29 |
| 11 | Felipe Drugovich | ART | 1m55.574s | 25 | 1m55.379s | 28 |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | 1m55.479s | 26 | 1m55.702s | 30 |
| 13 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | 1m56.409s | 32 | 1m55.492s | 28 |
| 14 | Max Fewtrell | ART | 1m55.630s | 26 | 1m55.573s | 30 |
| 15 | Bent Viscaal | MP | 1m56.352s | 25 | 1m55.616s | 35 |
| 16 | Ben Hingeley | Jenzer | 1m55.702s | 34 | 1m55.617s | 28 |
| 17 | Fabio Scherer | Charouz | 1m56.636s | 31 | 1m55.929s | 30 |
| 18 | Alex Peroni | Campos | 1m55.936s | 29 | 1m56.092s | 31 |
| 19 | Marcus Armstrong | Charouz | 1m56.269s | 27 | 1m56.123s | 34 |
| 20 | Lirim Zendeli | Charouz | 1m56.207s | 33 | 1m56.408s | 33 |
