Lotus' Pastor Maldonado went quickest on the first day of Formula One testing in Barcelona on Thursday.

The Venezuelan endured sensor problems early in the session, but recovered to go fastest with a time of one minute and 25.011 seconds - quicker than that posted by Lewis Hamilton as he qualified pole at Circuit de Catalunya last year.

Maldonado took advantage of a late soft tyre run to register his impressive time, leapfrogging previous pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen (+0.166secs), whose best lap in the Ferrari was also quicker than Hamilton's 2014 marker.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo (+0.536secs) was third fastest, while Sergio Perez (+0.625secs) - only brought into action when Pascal Wehrlein was recalled to parent team Mercedes to replace the unwell Hamilton - was fourth.

Wehrlein's busy day saw him finish both eighth (+3.318secs) and ninth (+3.478secs) fastest, going quicker in the year-old Force India than he managed in the Mercedes.

Felipe Nasr (+2.294secs) had impressed for Sauber early on, but was involved in a tangle with Williams' Susie Wolff (+3.895secs) that left both cars in need of repair.

Max Verstappen (+2.889secs) got 94 valuable laps under his belt, but the day ended in disappointment for Jenson Button (+3.171secs), who was forced to withdraw due to a faulty seal on his McLaren.