Alexander Sims carried his pacesetting GP3 form from the Valencia's permanent Ricardo Tormo circuit to its street circuit by going quickest in first free practice.
The Status Grand Prix driver topped the timesheets on both days of last week's official test at Ricardo Tormo, and has successfully repeated that form at the beginning of the weekend, beating Mitch Evans by nine hundredths of a second.
Michael Christensen was the first man to top the session for Mucke, before swapping fastest times with Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Tom Dillmann and Valtteri Bottas.
Lewis Williamson went quickest with ten minutes remaining in the session, before MW Arden teammate Evans bettered his time.
Sims took top spot in the final moments, with Evans dropping to second. Dillmann and Addax teammate Gabby Chaves ended the session in third and fourth. Championship leader Nigel Melker was fifth, ahead of Finnish pairing Bottas and Aaro Vainio.
Brits Williamson and Quaife-Hobbs dropped down to eighth and ninth places respectively, with Conor Daly in tenth for Carlin.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Alexander Sims | Status Grand Prix | 1:59.708 | 14 | |
| 2 | Mitch Evans | MW Arden | 1:59.798 | 0.090 | 14 |
| 3 | Tom Dillmann | Addax Team | 1:59.863 | 0.155 | 12 |
| 4 | Gabby Chaves | Addax Team | 1:59.930 | 0.222 | 13 |
| 5 | Nigel Melker | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 1:59.974 | 0.266 | 14 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Lotus ART | 1:59.978 | 0.270 | 13 |
| 7 | Aaro Vainio | Tech 1 Racing | 2:00.025 | 0.317 | 13 |
| 8 | Lewis Williamson | MW Arden | 2:00.045 | 0.337 | 14 |
| 9 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | Marussia Manor Racing | 2:00.052 | 0.344 | 13 |
| 10 | Conor Daly | Carlin | 2:00.114 | 0.406 | 15 |
| 11 | Michael Christensen | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 2:00.134 | 0.426 | 13 |
| 12 | Nico Muller | Jenzer Motorsport | 2:00.194 | 0.486 | 14 |
| 13 | Matias Laine | Marussia Manor Racing | 2:00.214 | 0.506 | 14 |
| 14 | Simon Trummer | MW Arden | 2:00.250 | 0.542 | 14 |
| 15 | Pedro Nunes | Lotus ART | 2:00.285 | 0.577 | 13 |
| 16 | Marlon Stockinger | Atech CRS GP | 2:00.298 | 0.590 | 14 |
| 17 | Ivan Lukashevich | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 2:00.305 | 0.597 | 13 |
| 18 | Luciano Bacheta | RSC Mucke Motorsport | 2:00.558 | 0.694 | 15 |
| 19 | Dean Smith | Addax Team | 2:00.573 | 0.865 | 6 |
| 20 | James Calado | Lotus ART | 2:00.694 | 0.986 | 13 |
| 21 | Antonio Felix Da Costa | Status Grand Prix | 2:00.737 | 1.029 | 14 |
| 22 | Daniel Morad | Carlin | 2:00.783 | 1.075 | 13 |
| 23 | Rio Haryanto | Marussia Manor Racing | 2:00.842 | 1.134 | 12 |
| 24 | Leonardo Cordeiro | Carlin | 2:01.067 | 1.359 | 14 |
| 25 | Nick Yelloly | Atech CRS GP | 2:01.084 | 1.376 | 13 |
| 26 | Tamas Pal Kiss | Tech 1 Racing | 2:01.149 | 1.441 | 14 |
| 27 | Maxim Zimin | Jenzer Motorsport | 2:01.374 | 1.666 | 13 |
| 28 | Thomas Hylkema | Tech 1 Racing | 2:02.155 | 2.447 | 13 |
| 29 | Vittorio Ghirelli | Jenzer Motorsport | 2:03.413 | 3.705 | 4 |
| 30 | Zoel Amberg | Atech CRS GP | 1 |
