F1 test in Abu Dhabi: Ferrari's Charles Leclerc beats Vettel – F1

Charles Leclerc began his career as a Ferrari Formula 1 driver by breaking Sebastian Vettel 's record on Tuesday and breaking records as the second day of testing began in Abu Dhabi.

The Monegasque is preparing for his graduation at Ferrari in 2019 after finishing his rookie season with Sauber at the Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi last weekend.

Leclerc has already driven for Ferrari, including a race at Monza earlier this year, but predicted that his first try as an official race driver would be an "emotional" and "special" experience.

He started by clocking the fastest time of the first four hours of Wednesday's race, which will continue for five more hours until 18 hours local time.

Leclerc reached the top of the time at the second hour with a lap of 1m36.938s, before reducing by two hundredths this morning, leaving him a little under a tenth slower than his teammate Vettel's benchmark in 2019 Tuesday.

The 21-year-old went even faster shortly after noon, clocking a time of 1m36.559, almost three tenths ahead of the best of Vettel.

Like Leclerc, Pierre Gasly discovers one of the big three current F1 teams during this test, while he was appearing for Red Bull before his move in 2019.

Gasly, who last rode a Red Bull in August 2017, clocked the second fastest time, 1.4 seconds slower than Leclerc after his own improvement in the fourth hour.

Lance Stroll, pilot of Racing Point Force India unconfirmed but expected, reappeared for the team after wearing the rose for the first time on Tuesday.

Stroll set the third fastest time, joining the top two in the afternoon improvement and surpbading Gasly's speed by 0.07 seconds.

Valtteri Bottas continued his second day of testing at Mercedes and was ranked fourth after the first four hours.

Daniil Kvyat has returned to driving behind a Toro Rosso for the first time since his retirement at the US Grand Prix in 2017.

The recalled Russian completed the top five, 2.3 times slower than Leclerc.

His compatriot Artem Markelov was next for Renault, while Louis Deletraz made his F1 tests with Haas for seventh fastest with a best time of 1m40,153 set in the second hour.

That gave him two tenths of a second on McLaren's new man, Carlos Sainz Jr, who was on his first outing with the Woking team.

Antonio Giovinazzi succeeded Kimi Räikkönen at Sauber and finished eighth ahead of Renault's Artem Markelov.

Robert Kubica reappeared for Williams but did not represent a representative hour in the morning. He will hand over his 2019 teammate George Russell for the rest of the day.

Mid-session time