Jolyon Palmer continued his impressive GP2 testing form from last week to finish a superb second fastest during today's (Tuesday) opening session at a cold Barcelona circuit.

Drivers were greeted with sunny but chilly conditions for the morning session on day one with only six cars electing to set lap times in the first hour, as the majority waited for the track temperature to rise above 4˚C.

Jolyon, who finished fifth fastest overall during last week's test at Jerez, took to the track shortly after and after completing his installation laps was soon showing front-running pace to go sixth quickest with an hour left on the clock.

Temperatures struggled to get above 10˚C throughout the morning as the 21-year-old Brit put in a quick lap in his iSport car in the final stages to go P2. He may have gone even quicker too had two late red flags, caused by Julian Leal and Nathanael Berthon stopping on track, not have brought the session to a premature end.

Speaking afterwards Palmer said: "That was a good morning session for us. The track temperature was very cold for the first half of the session so we struggled to get temperature into the tyres and I was running P6 after my first run. We made some good changes to the set up to help this and I managed a very good lap which put me P2 for this morning. It is another step forward and now we will continue to do short runs this afternoon and hopefully make further progress."

Fabrizio Crestani headed the timesheets for the session with Trident's Stéphane Richelmi third behind Palmer. Testing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya continues this afternoon with full coverage on Jolyon's official website.

GP2 test, Barcelona day one, morning results:

1. F Crestani, GP Lazarus
2. J Palmer, iSport
3. S Richelmi, Trident
4. R Haryanto, Carlin
5. S Coletti, Scuderia
6. D Valsecchi, DAMS
7. J Leal, Trident
8. G VD Garde, Caterham
9. M Chilton, Carlin
10. S Trummer, Arden