GP2: Palmer leads the way in free practice

Jolyon Palmer

Jolyon Palmer has opened his Barcelona weekend in fine style, leading his rivals for almost the entire forty-five minutes of this morning’s free practice session in Spain to claim the top spot on the timesheets ahead of Felipe Nasr and teammate Stéphane Richelmi.

The Briton stopped the clocks with a time of 1:30.448, with his rivals unable to get within two tenths of his best time, despite the conditions: the session opened under the expected hot and sunny conditions, with temperatures rising throughout.

Palmer was the first driver to set a time, and although Nathanael Berthon and Simon Trummer briefly moved past him, the Briton improved on their times on his next lap, before setting a laptime just eight minutes into the session which was never bettered.

Nevertheless, his rivals gave it a good go, with improvements up and down the grid as they battled for best of the rest status: Nasr and Richelmi were ultimately split by just one thousandth of a second, finishing ahead of Mitch Evans, Daniiel De Jong, Stoffel Vandoorne, Daniel Abt and Rio Haryanto. With everyone intimately familiar with the circuit, this afternoon’s qualifying session promises to be a cracker.

Results

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1:30.448 19
2. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1:30.651 15
3. Stéphane Richelmi DAMS 1:30.652 17
4. Mitch Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 1:30.892 17
5. Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:30.951 15
6. Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:31.460 20
7. Daniel Abt Hilmer Motorsport 1:31.508 17
8. Rio Haryanto EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:31.510 18
9. Tom Dillmann Arden International 1:31.524 15
10. Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:31.650 16
11. Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 1:31.657 14
12. Nathanael Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:31.666 16
13. Johnny Cecotto Trident 1:31.813 19
14. Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:31.854 16
15. Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:31.901 7
16. Tio Ellinas MP Motorsport 1:31.905 19
17. Kimiya Sato Campos Racing 1:31.912 17
18. Simon Trummer Rapax 1:32.087 16
19 Julian Leal Carlin 1:32.128 18
20. Alexander Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:32.159 19
21. Facu Regalia Hilmer Motorsport 1:32.398 18
22. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1:32.560 14
23. Rene Binder Arden International 1:32.566 17
24. Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 1:32.640 17
25. Artem Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 1:32.784 16
26. Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix 1:32.791 18