The Belgian completed 99 laps in the last outing for the McLaren-Honda MP4-30, setting a best time of 1m44.103s, 0.353 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn was one of nine 2015 race drivers in action during the 12-hour test, as Pirelli looks to bring a tire performance "cliff" back to F1 next year.

Pirelli tried "several different potential variations" of the new ultra-soft compound along with new front and rear constructions of other compounds. Teams were banned from trying new parts.

"We had one shot when it came to testing tires for next season, and we can be satisfied by what we've achieved in this test, even if we have to fully analyze the data," Pirelli's Paul Hembery said. "We've tested different versions of the new ultra-soft compound for 2016, which was one of the targets for this session.

"The ultra-soft's target for 2016 is to introduce a compound softer than the super-soft and mainly designed as aggressive choice for street circuits: with better performance than the latest version of the super-soft tire and faster degradation, in order to allow the teams to take a more aggressive approach to race strategy.

"Whether this will produce more pit stops, or any difference in strategies, it's too early to say for now. But it seems we are heading in the right direction: the ultra-soft is expected to offer more possibilities for certain races."

Marcus Ericsson set the third-fastest time for Sauber, ahead of 2016 Lotus driver Jolyon Palmer and Raikkonen's Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso race drivers also ran, while new Force India development driver Alfonso Celis turned his first laps in a Formula 1 car and Manor gave GP2 driver Jordan King his first F1 mileage.