Jolyon Palmer set the pace in the 30-minute free practice session for round 10 of the GP2 Series at Singapore on Friday afternoon.
The daylight session, the conditions in which both of the races will also be held as opposed to the night-time qualifying session later today, was dominated by the Carlin driver.
Palmer’s first effort was a 1m56.602s, which he lowered to a 1m55.912s after a cool-off lap.
Palmer’s fastest time was 3.532s quicker than last year’s pole time, set by team-mate Felipe Nasr, thanks to the removal of the chicane at Turn 10. All cars ran on the soft prime compound, teams saving the super-soft options for qualifying.
Championship leader Fabio Leimer was second fastest for Racing Engineering, although many of his early attempts were thwarted by traffic. Marcus Ericsson was quick throughout the session and ended up third for DAMS, ahead of Alexander Rossi’s Caterham machine.
Mitch Evans was one of the few drivers to improve in the second half of the session, rising to fifth in his Arden machine. British duo James Calado and Sam Bird were sixth and seventh respectively, with Nasr eighth ahead of Johnny Cecotto Jr.
Former series leader Stefano Coletti suffered another dreadful time, slumping to 24th fastest time and clearly struggling with poor handling as he overshot a corner and was forced into a three-point turn.
Elsewhere, Jake Rosenzweig clattered a wall, Dani Clos clipped one and even session dominator Palmer had a huge slide in the closing stages, which he collected up without hitting anything.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps 1. Jolyon Palmer Carlin 1m55.912s 13 2. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1m56.165s +0.253 12 3. Marcus Ericsson DAMS 1m56.509s +0.597 12 4. Alexander Rossi Caterham 1m56.758s +0.846 12 5. Mitchell Evans Arden 1m56.885s +0.973 12 6. James Calado ART 1m57.067s +1.155 13 7. Sam Bird Russian Time 1m57.089s +1.177 13 8. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1m57.089s +1.177 12 9. Johnny Cecotto Jr. Arden 1m57.297s +1.385 12 10. Stefano Richelmi DAMS 1m57.755s +1.843 13 11. Rio Haryanto Addax 1m57.822s +1.910 12 12. Nathanel Berthon Trident 1m57.919s +2.007 12 13. Tom Dillmann Russian Time 1m58.017s +2.105 12 14. Rene Binder Lazarus 1m58.135s +2.223 12 15. Sergio Canamasas Caterham 1m58.358s +2.446 12 16. Jon Lancaster Hilmer 1m58.376s +2.464 12 17. Julian Leal Racing Engineering 1m58.377s +2.465 11 18. Daniel Clos MP Motorsport 1m58.495s +2.583 12 19. Daniel Abt ART 1m58.518s +2.606 12 20. Jake Rosenzweig Addax 1m58.916s +3.004 12 21. Vittorio Ghirelli Lazarus 1m58.939s +3.027 12 22. Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m59.063s +3.151 12 23. Simon Trummer Rapax 1m59.213s +3.301 12 24. Stefano Coletti Rapax 1m59.375s +3.463 12 25. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Hilmer 1m59.559s +3.647 12 26. Gianmarco Raimondo Trident 2m00.990s +5.078 13
