Romain Grosjean laid down a marker in free practice for the GP2 Series round at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya.
The Frenchman, who jointly leads the standings after the season opener in Istanbul with Sam Bird, posted his fastest time just five minutes into the session. The DAMS driver's time would still be good enough to end the session on top by more than half a second.
Davide Valsecchi ended the session in second place for Team AirAsia, with Jules Bianchi third for ART. Addax pairing Giedo van der Gardeand Charles Pic were fourth and sixth fastest respecitvely, sandwiching Super Nova driver Luca Filippi.
Bird meanwhile could only manage 24th spot, 2.9 seconds down and Grosjean and ahead only of rookie Kevin Ceccon and Jolyon Palmer, who failed to set a time.
Free practice results:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | DAMS | 1:30.559 | 13 | |
| 2 | Davide Valsecchi | Team AirAsia | 1:31.081 | 0.522 | 14 |
| 3 | Jules Bianchi | Lotus ART | 1:31.214 | 0.655 | 11 |
| 4 | Giedo van der Garde | Barwa Addax Team | 1:31.237 | 0.678 | 12 |
| 5 | Luca Filippi | Super Nova Racing | 1:31.265 | 0.706 | 7 |
| 6 | Charles Pic | Barwa Addax Team | 1:31.410 | 0.851 | 10 |
| 7 | Fabio Leimer | Rapax | 1:31.507 | 0.948 | 16 |
| 8 | Pal Varhaug | DAMS | 1:31.536 | 0.977 | 14 |
| 9 | Dani Clos | Racing Engineering | 1:31.656 | 1.097 | 13 |
| 10 | Luiz Razia | Team AirAsia | 1:31.672 | 1.113 | 14 |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | iSport International | 1:31.834 | 1.275 | 14 |
| 12 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 1:31.840 | 1.281 | 16 |
| 13 | Stefano Coletti | Trident Racing | 1:31.889 | 1.330 | 10 |
| 14 | Alvaro Parente | Racing Engineering | 1:31.930 | 1.371 | 13 |
| 15 | Fairuz Fauzy | Super Nova Racing | 1:31.982 | 1.423 | 6 |
| 16 | Esteban Gutierrez | Lotus ART | 1:32.031 | 1.472 | 14 |
| 17 | Michael Herck | Scuderia Coloni | 1:32.040 | 1.481 | 15 |
| 18 | Johnny Cecotto | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:32.073 | 1.514 | 16 |
| 19 | Julian Leal | Rapax | 1:32.144 | 1.585 | 7 |
| 20 | Kevin Mirocha | Ocean Racing Technology | 1:32.201 | 1.642 | 16 |
| 21 | Mikhail Aleshin | Carlin | 1:32.211 | 1.652 | 14 |
| 22 | Josef Kral | Arden International | 1:32.499 | 1.940 | 4 |
| 23 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Trident Racing | 1:32.778 | 2.219 | 14 |
| 24 | Sam Bird | iSport International | 1:33.491 | 2.932 | 18 |
| 25 | Kevin Ceccon | Scuderia Coloni | 1:34.274 | 3.715 | 13 |
| 26 | Jolyon Palmer | Arden International | 1 |
