Jolyon Palmer opened his home GP2 event by edging Arden team mate Josef Kral to 20th fastest in variable conditions during today's practice session at Silverstone.

The session began with tricky wet track conditions and the 20-year-old showed his car control skills to set the second fastest time early on. The Southwater driver remained there, behind early pace setter Stefano Coletti up until the session reached its halfway point when the track began to dry out.

With conditions improving, the first driver to take advantage of the extra grip was Rodolfo Gonzalez as he topped the times. However, he was knocked off the top spot by Romain Grosjean shortly after.

Following a pit stop, where he could only make limited changes to a wet weather setup, Palmer returned on track late in the session. He continued to set times around the fringes of the top 10 despite conditions favouring his rivals' dry setups. With eight minutes remaining he moved up to 11th, but as the session closed he ended up in 20th, a tenth of a second quicker than team mate Kral. Brit Sam Bird proved to be the man to beat as he topped the timesheets.

A frustrated Palmer said: "A disappointing first session - I started on wets, but the track soon dried. Unfortunately we had opted for a wet setup which cost us a bit in the dry conditions and I could only manage 20th place. I am expecting improvements in qualifying though."

Jolyon will be back on track for the crucial qualifying session next at 2:55pm.

Silverstone practice results:

1. S Bird, iSport, 1.41.763s
2. R Grosjean, DAMS, +0.173s
3. M Ericsson, iSport, +0.530s
4. D Valsecchi, AirAsia, +0.542s
5. L Filippi, Super Nova Racing, +0.814s
6. E Gutierrez, Lotus ART, +0.905s
7. M Chilton, Carlin, +1.024s
8. G Van Der Garde, Barwa Addax, +1.031s
9. L Razia, AirAsia, +1.077s
20. J Palmer, Arden, +1.853s