Jolyon Palmer enjoyed a good final pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya ahead of the first round of the 2011 GP2 Series season.
The Arden International driver is preparing for his first year in the category after graduating from the FIA Formula Two Championship, where he was runner-up in 2010. He was on the pace right away in the Barcelona test, ending the Tuesday morning session in seventh. 15th fastest in the afternoon session, he ended the day ninth overall.
On the second and final day of the test, Palmer was 19th in the morning session after problems with traffic during his stint on fresh rubber. Concentrating on race runs in the afternoon, Palmer ended up 20th in the final session. With no prizes on offer for testing results, Palmer was pleased with how the final pre-season test went.
“It's been a productive test,” he said. “I was quite happy with how things went on day one finishing ninth overall. I’ve got a few things to work on but it’s been a productive day as we have got through a good test plan and learnt a lot about this new GP2 car.
“I encountered problems with traffic during the morning session on day two which cost us a set of new tyres. For the final session we concentrated on long race runs which went well and we made good progress with the set-up of the car. Nearly all the drivers used new tyres so the times aren't comparable; however, amongst the people on long runs I think the pace we had was good.”
