The Piquet GP team set the pace in the first practice session for this weekend's GP2 Asia season finale in Bahrain.

Diego Nunes and Roldan Rodriguez were first and second fastest, and set the best lap time, nearly half a second clear of the rest of the field. Rodriguez was able to match his teammate's time despite missing half the session while the team fixed an ignition problem.

Luiz Razia was third quickest for Arden, with Alvaro Parente's Meritus car fourth. The title protagonists were next up, chaser Davide Valsecchi just a whisker quicker than points leader Kamui Kobayashi.

Edoardo Mortara made it two Ardens in the first seven, ahead of Jerome D'Ambrosio's DAMS car, with James Jakes (Super Nova) and Marco Bonanomi (Meritus) completing the top 10.

Vitaly Petrov completed just two laps of the session before stopping his car with an electrical gremlin.