Jolyon Palmer finished 18th overall in this afternoon's session at the official GP2 test at Silverstone, following on from his impressive 2nd place this morning.

Jolyon completed 12 laps on the Arena F1 circuit, fewer than most of his rivals, and finished with a best of 1:42.508s. He was unable to improve on this time as the session finished eight minutes ahead of schedule when Fairuz Fauzy lost control of his car. The session was not restarted after that.

"It rained again over lunch and the session started wet", said Jolyon. "Nobody wanted to use their new tyres until the track was at its best, so it came down to a last 30 minute shoot out. Unfortunately I had oversteer on the run and by the time we had made an adjustment for this the red flag came out and the session was finished. It was a disappointing end to the day but I think we can be at the front again tomorrow."

GP2 Asia champion Romain Grosjean topped the overall times. Day 2 takes place tomorrow (Wednesday).

Silverstone GP2 afternoon session times:

1, Romain Grosjean, FRA, DAMS, 1:40.725s
2, Josef Kral, CZE, Arden International, +0.636s
3, Fabio Leimer, Rapax, +0.755s
4, Sam Bird, iSport International, +0.800s
5, Jules Bianchi, Lotus ART, +0.830s
6, Christian Vietoris, Racing Engineering, +0.914s
7, Luca Filippi, Super Nova Racing, +0.926s
8, Julian Leal, Rapax, +1.056s
9, Michael Herck, Scuderia Coloni, +1.094s
18, Jolyon Palmer, Arden International, +1.783s