GP2 Series

Jolyon Palmer Leads Free Practice in Spain

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Championship leader Jolyon Palmer continued his strong start to the 2014 GP2 Series season by setting the fastest time in practice under the Spanish sun. The DAMS driver’s lap of 1:30.448s was enough to finish on top, with Carlin’s Brazilian racer Felipe Nasr finishing second 0.203s adrift, while the second DAMS of Stephane Richelmi was third a further 0.001s slower.

Palmer, who won the feature race in Bahrain after a podium in the sprint race, will go into this afternoons qualifying session happy after dominating the session. Second-placed Nasr must also be happy after running the session just moments after running the Formula 1 free practice session with his Williams F1 employers.

New Zealander Mitch Evans was fourth fastest in the leading Russian Time entry, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Daniel de Jong, who impressed to finish the session fifth; the Dutchman being the final driver to dip under the 1:31s barrier.

Sixth went to Bahrain feature race winner Stoffel Vandoorne in his ART Grand Prix machine, the Belgian finishing 0.048s fastest than Hilmer Motorsport’s German driver Daniel Abt, who in turn was 0.002s faster than the leading EQ8 Caterham Racing car of Indonesian Rio Haryanto in eighth.

The two drivers making their returns to the series in Spain completed the top ten, in the form of Tom Dillmann, a last minute replacement for the injured Andre Negrao at Arden International, and Sergio Canamasas, who is making his first appearance of the season for Trident Racing.

Tio Ellinas was sixteenth in his first session as a GP2 driver, having joined MP Motorsport in place of Jon Lancaster. The Cypriot was 1.457s off the pace of Palmer up front, but got some valuable time behind the wheel. He was quicker than one of the championship favourites in Alexander Rossi however, who coming off the back of a poor weekend in Bahrain last time out for Caterham, saw himself languishing down in 20th position.

Spain Free Practice Times

POS DRIVER NAT TEAM TIME
1 Jolyon Palmer GBR DAMS 1:30.448
2 Felipe Nasr BRZ Carlin 1:30.651
3 Stephane Richelmi MON DAMS 1:30.652
4 Mitch Evans NZL RT Russian Time 1:30.892
5 Daniel de Jong NED MP Motorsport 1:30.951
6 Stoffel Vandoorne BEL ART Grand Prix 1:31.460
7 Daniel Abt GER Hilmer Motorsport 1:31.508
8 Rio Haryanto INO EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:31.510
9 Tom Dillmann FRA Arden International 1:31.524
10 Sergio Canamasas ESP Trident Racing 1:31.650
11 Stefano Coletti MON Racing Engineering 1:31.657
12 Nathanael Berthon FRA Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:31.666
13 Johnny Cecotto Jr VEN Trident Racing 1:31.813
14 Arthur Pic FRA Campos Racing 1:31.854
15 Conor Daly USA Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:31.901
16 Tio Ellinas CYP MP Motorsport 1:31.905
17 Kimiya Sato JAP Campos Racing 1:31.912
18 Simon Trummer SWI Rapax 1:32.087
19 Julian Leal COL Carlin 1:32.128
20 Alexander Rossi USA EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:32.159
21 Facu Regalia ARG Hilmer Motorsport 1:32.398
22 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs GBR Rapax 1:32.560
23 Rene Binder AUT Arden International 1:32.566
24 Raffaele Marciello ITA Racing Engineering 1:32.640
25 Artem Markelov RUS RT Russian Time 1:32.784
26 Takuya Izawa JAP ART Grand Prix 1:32.791

 

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