Jolyon Palmer made a promising start to this weekend's GP2 Finals race by going 12th fastest during the opening practice session at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi.

20-year-old Palmer, driving for Addax who were crowned this year's Team Champions, began the session brightly, showing good pace throughout and running fourth quickest at one stage.

Drivers were greeted with bright blue skies for the slightly extended 45 minute practice with Palmer running in the top 15 early on before a brief interruption following Julian Leal's spin at Turn 19.

The Brit then moved up into an impressive P4 with 20 minutes left on the clock chasing Dani Clos, Fabio Leimer and Esteban Gutierrez ahead of him. As the session drew to a close, Palmer was running 12th around the 5.554km circuit but was unable to better his time before the chequered flag came out.

Speaking afterwards Palmer said: "I managed to put in a lap on tyres that had started to degrade as I had to wait to complete a competitive third sector because of a yellow flag. Other people went out later and had a clear track on better tyres so the times are spread out. We will make some set-up changes now and try to improve for qualifying later today."

Lotus ART's Gutierrez secured the fastest time with Leimer second and iSport's Tom Dillmann in third.

Jolyon is next on track at 14:55 (local time, 10:55 GMT) for today's qualifying session ahead of the GP2 Finals event which races alongside the Formula One Grand Prix.

Abu Dhabi, GP2 Finals practice results:

1. E Gutierrez, ART, 1:50.442s
2. F Leimer, Racing, +0.515s
3. T Dillmann, iSport, +0.557s
4. M Chilton, Carlin, +0.576s
5. D Clos, Rapax, +0.651s
6. L Razia, AirAsia, +0.846s
7. N Berthon, Racing, +0.969s
8. M Ericsson, iSport, +1.085s
9. S Coletti, Scuderia, +1.304s
12. J Palmer, Addax, +1.490s