A strong opening day at Jerez has seen Jolyon Palmer claim the third fastest time in GP2 testing. The 21-year old completed 59 laps of the Spanish circuit, as he familiarises himself with the iSport team he'll race with in 2012.

A hot afternoon greeted the drivers when they left the pitlane for the second session of the day and in the early laps Jolyon ran just outside the top ten as many teams went for short fuel runs. However it was clear that the quick times of the morning were unlikely to be repeated.

The action was interrupted after an hour when Vittorio Ghirelli stopped on the circuit. Just five minutes was needed to recover the car before the iSport drivers upped their pace, holding first and third places on the timesheets.

The field traded times for the following hour before another brief stoppage was occasioned by debris on the track, as the session entered its final hour. Conditions remained less favourable to the field in the warm afternoon and no-one was able to improve on the morning's pace.

Jolyon summed up a productive session: "This afternoon we made more progress with the set up. Unfortunately I had bad traffic on new tyres, so my best time was set on old tyres, but overall I'm very happy and confident with the pace."

With Jolyon able to add to his impressive lap tally, his day ended with a top three place on the leaderboard. The test continues tomorrow (29 February) and Thursday (1 March).

Jerez, GP2 test session day one results:

1. D Valsecchi, DAMS, 1:26.014s
2. F Onidi, Scuderia Colini, +0.203s
3. J Palmer, iSport International, +0.205s
4. M Ericsson, iSport International, +0.252s
5. E Gutierrez, Lotus GP, +0.394s
6. J Calado, Lotus GP, +0.572s
7. F Leimer, Racing Engineering, +0.762
8. S Richelmi, Trident Racing, +0.874s
9. S Coletti, Scuderia Coloni, +0.877s
10. D Clos, Rapax, +0.930s