New Formula 2 cars shaken down by teams at snowy Magny-Cours

Teams only took delivery of their new 3.4-litre turbocharged V6-powered machines at the end of January and have since been assembling the new cars.

The F2 2018, which was revealed at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix, is the second-tier category's first new machine since the 2011 season, when it was known as GP2.

Despite freezing conditions at Magny-Cours, with snow lining the edges of the circuit, the teams emerged to complete their installation laps after the pitlane opened at 9am local time.

DAMS was the first team to venture out, with Nicolas Latifi driving, and was soon followed by Carlin's reigning Formula 3 European champion and McLaren Formula 1 reserve driver Lando Norris.

Renault academy driver Jack Aitken gave ART Grand Prix's new car its first run - his team-mate, 2017 GP3 champion George Russell, is set to drive this afternoon - with Campos Racing's new recruit Luca Ghiotto following him out.

Trident, which like DAMS and MP Motorsport has yet to announced its official 2018 driver line-up, handed installation duties to '17 racer Santino Ferrucci, with Louis Deletraz driving for new squad Charouz Racing System this morning.

MP and Prema Racing completed their opening laps a short while later, with McLaren junior Nyck de Vries handling the installation work for the latter, which has clinched the last two GP2/F2 titles with Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc.

MP's running was conducted by Daniel De Jong, who took part in 79 GP2 races for the team between 2013-16.

Artem Markelov was the first driver to emerge in the F2 2018 for reigning teams' champion squad Russian Time, which was only officially confirmed on the entry list for this season last week, following the withdrawal of the Fortec Motorsport and Racing Engineering squads

Honda F1 protege Nirei Fukuzumi completed the first installation laps for Arden International - which announced Mercedes DTM junior Maximilian Gunther as its second 2018 F2 driver yesterday - just after halfway through the morning running.

During the afternoon session, which took place on a drying track that eventually meant the field could run slicks, Ghiotto completed the most laps of any driver, ending up with 29.

That was one more than GP3 race winner Arjun Maini, who took over from fellow Haas F1 junior Ferrucci for the afternoon running at Trident, with Russell's total a further lap behind.

Sergio Sette Camara (Carlin), Gunther, Antonio Fuoco (Charouz) and Sean Gelael (Prema) also got their first taste of the new cars during the afternoon - with Norris and Ferrucci climbing back in to get more time during the later running.

In total, the teams completed 325 laps, which is over 1400km for the day.