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

The Barbadian rookie showed im🐻pressive pa🌳ce 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 Malone💦y’s benchmark time.

Jak Crawford was third for reigning champions𝓰 Prema with a 1ꦚm47.799s.

The Red Bull-backed jun꧃i🐻or will be entering his second season in the series and will be fancying his chances of a strong season.

The second Trident of Ro♔man Stanek and Van Amersfoort Racing’s rounded out the top five♒.

Vi🤡ctor Martins was sixth for ART Grand Prix, just over 0.3s off the leader’s 💮pace.

Arthur Leclerc, Reece🐭 Ushijima, Oliver Bearman and Gregoire Saucy rounded out the top 10 on d🉐ay one in Bahrain.

Leclerc topped the morning session for Prema before ꧑finishing seventh overall in the afternoon.

The 🤡afternoon session was relatively smoot♛h 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 Gr꧂and Prix ahead of Kaylen Frederick.

Alexander Smolyar returns to the series with MP Motorspo🌺rt, ending the day in 13th ahead of Francesco Pizzi of Charouz and Trid♔ent’s Jonny Edgar.

Pepe Marti was the lead Campos in 16th, finishing ahead of Jenzer’s Patrik Pasma, MP’s🀅 Kush Maini and Ido Co💖hen.

Williams F1 academy driver🐼 Zak O'Sullivan completed the 🎀top 20.