Jolyon Palmer continued where he left off to finish fourth fastest in the opening GP2 practice session in Valencia.

Fresh from his superb maiden win in Monaco, the 21-year-old showed his street circuit prowess by going third quickest early in the 30-minute session with his first flying lap, just behind Davide Valsecchi and Max Chilton.

Jolyon looked quick throughout practice, and had just set the fastest first sector time when the session was red flagged after Rodolfo Gonzalez crashed his Caterham with 15 minutes remaining.

Track time resumed with less than nine minutes remaining and with four minutes to go, Jolyon embarked on another quick lap with a fantastic final sector which launched him up to second position, just 0.015s off the top spot.

Meanwhile, Jolyon's iSport team-mate Marcus Ericsson just went quicker in the closing stages to end the session on top ahead of Valsecchi and Giedo Van Der Garde in the Caterham.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon said: "It was a good session, the car felt good and I was able to do a good time for P4. Now for qualifying we need to do the same again, and with the option tyres and track evolution, there should be a bit more pace in there. Hopefully now we can fight for pole."

Jolyon is next on track at 15:55 (local time) for today's qualifying session with full coverage and live timing available on his official website.

GP2 Valencia, practice results:

1. M Ericsson, iSport, 1:48.088s
2. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +0.163s
3. G VD Garde, Caterham, +0.176s
4. J Palmer, iSport, ++0.178s
5. J Cecotto, Addax, +0.384s
6. M Chilton, Carlin, +0.446s
7. F Leimer, Racing, +0.539s
8. J Calado, Lotus GP, +0.774s
9. F Nasr, DAMS, +0.851s
10. S Coletti, Scuderia, +0.956s