Romain Grosjean comfortably led the way in the first GP2 practice session of the weekend at Barcelona.
The championship leader was the first driver to set a genuine lap time six minutes into the session, and his best effort of 1m30.559s was never headed. In fact, none of the Frenchman's rivals could even get within half a second of his time.
All of the quick times were set shortly after Grosjean made his mark, with Davide Valsecchi (AirAsia) and Jules Bianchi (ART) leading the chase. But the session came to a quiet end, as nobody in the top 10 improved in the final 15 minutes.
Addax's Giedo van der Garde overcame a very public on-track row with Rodolfo Gonzalez to set the fourth fastest time, while Luca Filippi completed the top five for Super Nova.
Charles Pic made sure Addax had two cars in the top six, ahead of Fabio Leimer (Trident) and Grosjean's DAMS teammate Pal Varhaug.
Sam Bird, who shares the championship lead with Grosjean coming into this weekend, did not hit the same heights as his rival and was only 24th. The iSport driver completed plenty of laps, unlike the two Arden cars that also finished the session near the back, but he could not improve on a best lap that was 2.9sec adrift.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Romain Grosjean DAMS 1m30.559s
2. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia 1m31.081s + 0.522s
3. Jules Bianchi ART 1m31.214s + 0.655s
4. Giedo van der Garde Addax 1m31.237s + 0.678s
5. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m31.265s + 0.706s
6. Charles Pic Addax 1m31.410s + 0.851s
7. Fabio Leimer Rapax 1m31.507s + 0.948s
8. Pal Varhaug DAMS 1m31.536s + 0.977s
9. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m31.656s + 1.097s
10. Luiz Razia AirAsia 1m31.672s + 1.113s
11. Marcus Ericsson iSport 1m31.834s + 1.275s
12. Max Chilton Carlin 1m31.840s + 1.281s
13. Stefano Coletti Trident 1m31.889s + 1.330s
14. Alvaro Parente Racing Engineering 1m31.930s + 1.371s
15. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova 1m31.982s + 1.423s
16. Esteban Gutierrez ART 1m32.031s + 1.472s
17. Michael Herck Coloni 1m32.040s + 1.481s
18. Johnny Cecotto Ocean 1m32.073s + 1.514s
19. Julian Leal Rapax 1m32.144s + 1.585s
20. Kevin Mirocha Ocean 1m32.201s + 1.642s
21. Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 1m32.211s + 1.652s
22. Josef Kral Arden 1m32.499s + 1.940s
23. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 1m32.778s + 2.219s
24. Sam Bird iSport 1m33.491s + 2.932s
25. Kevin Ceccon Coloni 1m33.274s + 2.715s
26. Jolyon Palmer Arden