Max Chilton expressed his delight after his practice debut with Marussia in Abu Dhabi.
The two time GP2 race winner replaced Charles Pic in first practice.
"My FP1 session went just as well as I could have hoped for and my thanks again to the Marussia F1 Team for making this possible. I haven’t stopped smiling all day. I have been looking forward to this opportunity for a few weeks now, but when the moment came - with all the pressure - I admit that I was a little nervous", he said.
"I wanted everything to go well and to have as much track time as possible. In the end, due to the tyre life situation, we built up to two longer runs of eight laps each, where I was able to work on some pretty demanding testing items, procedures and systems".
Chilton fared well although lamented a Ma Qing Hua blocking him on his hot lap.
"On the first run I was very happy to improve immediately - and keep improving. I was hoping to do that again on the second run but unfortunately I was blocked by traffic from a HRT car. There was definitely more to come though and that is the only small frustration in an otherwise memorable day. The team were very supportive and thanks to my engineering team and car crew today, who made me feel right at home", he added.
