Romain Grosjean continued the form that saw him win the GP2 Asia Series title into the first day of pre-season testing for the upcoming main series. The French Dams driver recorded the fastest time of the day at Silverstone.
The day's running began in wet conditions, but despite this all of the drivers were eager to get laps under their belt in order to get as much mileage as possible on the Pirelli wet weather tyres. Grosjean was the early pacesetter, but was beaten mid-way through the morning session by iSport driver Marcus Ericsson – the Swede improving on the Frenchman's time by five hundredths of a second.
Reigning GP3 Series champion Esteban Gutierrez then went top, before being bettered by Lotus ART teammate Jules Bianchi. Bianchi later improved his time to end the session ahead, with Jolyon Palmer moving up to second at the last minute, pushing Gutierrez down to third. The Addax pairing of Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde rounded out the top five for the session.
The track had dried slightly for the afternoon session, where Grosjean once again set the early pace. Davide Rigon, returning to GP2 with Coloni, later took top spot, a whole three seconds ahead of his nearest rival. As the track dried Grosjean returned to first place, until Stefano Coletti became the first driver to fit slick tyres and immediately went quicker. The Trident racer continued to better his time to remain at the head of the field.
More drivers moved onto slicks as the session came to a close, which saw Ericsson, Fabio Leimer and Josef Kral all have a spell in P1. Grosjean then regained first place, just before the session came to an early finish as Fairuz Fauzy lost control and brought out the red flag with eight minutes remaining. With the session not restarting Grosjean ended the day on top, ahead of Kral, Leimer, Sam Bird and Bianchi.
Morning session:
| Driver | Team | Laptime | Gap | Laps | |
| 1. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:55.769 | 29 | |
| 2. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:56.146 | +0.377 | 22 |
| 3. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:56.236 | +0.467 | 21 |
| 4. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax | 1:56.244 | +0.475 | 29 |
| 5. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax | 1:56.496 | +0.727 | 22 |
| 6. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:56.841 | +1.072 | 21 |
| 7. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:57.027 | +1.258 | 25 |
| 8. | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:57.270 | +1.501 | 21 |
| 9. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:57.296 | +1.527 | 25 |
| 10. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:57.452 | +1.683 | 19 |
| 11. | Oliver Turvey | Carlin | 1:57.472 | +1.703 | 11 |
| 12. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | 1:57.576 | +1.807 | 24 |
| 13. | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:57.788 | +2.019 | 29 |
| 14. | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:57.850 | +2.081 | 27 |
| 15. | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:57.871 | +2.102 | 20 |
| 16. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:58.027 | +2.258 | 17 |
| 17. | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:58.289 | +2.520 | 19 |
| 18. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:58.293 | +2.524 | 40 |
| 19. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:58.319 | +2.550 | 14 |
| 20. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:58.439 | +2.670 | 30 |
| 21. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:58.770 | +3.001 | 10 |
| 22. | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:58.048 | +2.279 | 21 |
| 23. | Davide Rigon | Scuderia Coloni | 2:00.070 | +4.301 | 17 |
| 24. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 2:00.228 | +4.459 | 26 |
| 25. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 2:00.299 | +4.530 | 13 |
| 26. | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | No time | 2 |
Afternoon session:
| Driver | Team | Laptime | Gap | Laps | |
| 1. | Romain Grosjean | Dams | 1:40.725 | 17 | |
| 2. | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:41.361 | +0.636 | 11 |
| 3. | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:41.480 | +0.755 | 14 |
| 4. | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:41.525 | +0.800 | 14 |
| 5. | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:41.555 | +0.830 | 15 |
| 6. | Christian Vietoris | Racing Engineering | 1:41.639 | +0.914 | 15 |
| 7. | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | 1:41.651 | +0.926 | 14 |
| 8. | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:41.781 | +1.056 | 15 |
| 9. | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:41.819 | +1.094 | 20 |
| 10. | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:41.900 | +1.175 | 13 |
| 11. | Oliver Turvey | Carlin | 1:42.103 | +1.378 | 17 |
| 12. | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:42.147 | +1.422 | 17 |
| 13. | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:42.231 | +1.506 | 18 |
| 14. | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:42.360 | +1.635 | 18 |
| 15. | Davide Rigon | Scuderia Coloni | 1:42.376 | +1.651 | 21 |
| 16. | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:42.399 | +1.674 | 16 |
| 17. | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:42.488 | +1.763 | 9 |
| 18. | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1:42.508 | +1.783 | 12 |
| 19. | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:42.509 | +1.784 | 16 |
| 20. | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:42.929 | +2.204 | 13 |
| 21. | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:43.125 | +2.400 | 14 |
| 22. | Pal Varhaug | Dams | 1:43.450 | +2.725 | 17 |
| 23. | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:43.479 | +2.754 | 18 |
| 24. | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:43.919 | +3.194 | 16 |
| 25. | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:44.029 | +3.304 | 21 |
| 26. | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:55.587 | +14.862 | 3 |
