Maloney took to the top in the afternoon sessioܫn at the Bahrain International Circuit with✨ a 1m47.614s.

The Barbadian rookie showed impressive pace during the first day of running🦋 in Bahrain ahead of the season opener at the same venue in just over two weeks.

Fellow rookie William Alatalo finished second for Jenzer, just over a tenth shy of Maloney’s benc🤪hmark time.

Jak Crawford was third for reigning champions Prema wit♒h a 1m47.799s.

The Red Bull-backed junior will be entering his second seaso♔n in the series and will be fancying his chances of a strong season.

The second Triden🧸t of Roman Stanek and Van Amersfoort𝕴 Racing’s rounded out the top five.

Vi📖ctor Martins was s🐻ixth for ART Grand Prix, just over 0.3s off the leader’s pace.

Arthur Leclerc, Reece Ushijima, Oli🐼ver Bearman and Gregoire Saucy rounded out the top 10 on day one in Bahrain.

Leclerc topped the morning session for Prem𒁏a before finishing seventh overall𝔉 in the afternoon.

The afternoon s🌠ession was relatively smooth but it was red-flagged with a minute to go after Ushijma and David Vidales came to a💝 halt on track. 

Isack Hadjar was 11th for Hitech Grand Pr🌟ix ahead of ꦿKaylen Frederick.

Alexander Smolyar returns to the series with MP Motorsport, ending thꦇe day in 13th ahead of Francesco Pizzi of Charouz and Trident’s 🏅Jonny Edgar.

Pepe Marti was the lea𒀰d Campos in 16th, finishing ahead of Jenzer’s Patrik Pasma, MP’s Kush Maini and Ido Cohen.

Williams F1 academy driver Z๊ak O'Sullivan completed the top 20.