Vitaly Petrov was fastest in this morning's opening GP2 practice session at a cold and windy Nurburgring, the Barwa Addax driver topping the sheets with a best lap of 1m38.752s.
Petrov took his place at the head of the field early in the session and never looked like being toppled, his time leaving him almost half a second clear of ART's Nico Hulkenberg. The German in turn edged out Piquet's Roldan Rodriguez, current points leader Romain Grosjean in the second Addax car and Pastor Maldonado (ART).
Most drivers made through the half-hour run without incident, although it was a difficult session for FMS, with Andi Zuber coming to a halt in the pit entry after five laps, and Luiz Razia losing it on the exit of the Ford Kurve after the chequered flag had been waved and slamming backwards into the inside barriers.
Durango's Nelson Panciatici was the only other driver to disappear early after his car stopped at the final corner with seven minutes remaining.
TIMES:Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Vitaly Petrov Addax 1m38.752s
2. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m39.200s + 0.448s
3. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m39.270s + 0.518s
4. Romain Grosjean Addax 1m39.292s + 0.540s
5. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m39.335s + 0.583s
6. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m39.347s + 0.595s
7. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m39.450s + 0.698s
8. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m39.485s + 0.733s
9. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m39.652s + 0.900s
10. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m39.882s + 1.130s
11. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m39.895s + 1.143s
12. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m40.089s + 1.337s
13. Luiz Razia Fisichella 1m40.192s + 1.440s
14. Diego Nunes iSport 1m40.211s + 1.459s
15. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m40.224s + 1.472s
16. Andreas Zuber Fisichella 1m40.264s + 1.512s
17. Sergio Perez Arden 1m40.318s + 1.566s
18. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m40.346s + 1.594s
19. Michael Herck DPR 1m40.413s + 1.661s
20. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m40.504s + 1.752s
21. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering 1m40.569s + 1.817s
22. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m40.773s + 2.021s
23. Franck Perera DPR 1m41.391s + 2.639s
24. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 1m41.910s + 3.158s
25. Nelson Panciatici Durango 1m42.537s + 3.785s
26. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m43.797s + 5.045s