Jolyon Palmer concluded his preparations for the opening rounds of the 2012 GP2 Series today (Thursday) by finishing an encouraging ninth fastest overall during this week's three-day test session in Barcelona.

After running fifth fastest overall in last week's Jerez test, the 21-year-old continued his front-running pace at the Circuit de Catalunya, home of the Spanish Grand Prix, and immediately caught the eye by going second quickest in the morning and fifth fastest for the day. "The morning session was a good one for us," said Jolyon. "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. We had a good afternoon session too, but unfortunately I hit a red flag and then a lot of traffic just as I went onto new tyres so I was unable to post a good lap time."

The morning session on day two saw the Briton focus on evaluating both the option and the prime tyres, followed by a race simulation in the afternoon as he looked to find the best set-up for his iSport car. A strong run on prime tyres early on saw Jolyon produce a 1:29.195s - half a second quicker than his fastest time from day one - to secure ninth out of 26 drivers, a position he retained throughout the day. "In the morning we did two new tyre runs and I was very competitive on the prime tyres but when we changed to the options I didn't find enough of a gain and finished P9," said Jolyon. Adding: "This afternoon we had a productive race run where we controlled the tyre degradation well which will be crucial in the races."

A total of six red flags hampered running on the third and final day of pre-season testing with Jolyon concentrating on a mixture of short and longer race runs. He ended the day 12th overall, commenting: "Today was a frustrating one; we spent the morning chasing qualifying pace and found something right at the end of the session for it. In the afternoon we did another long run which was good."

Summing up his three day test Jolyon added: "Overall Barcelona has been good. We have had new challenges facing us and seem to have found a solution for them all. Now I feel prepared to have a good weekend in Malaysia in a couple of weeks time."

Jolyon returns to the track on 23-25 March for the opening GP2 rounds in Malaysia. Full coverage, including live timing, will be available on his official website www.jolyonpalmer.com.

GP2 test, Barcelona, overall combined results:

1. Esteban Gutierrez, Lotus GP, 1:28.740s
2. Giedo Van Der Garde, Catheram, 1:28.744s
3. Max Chilton, Carlin, 1:28.748s
4. Davide Valsecchi, Dams, 1:28.785s
5. Stefano Coletti, Coloni, 1:29.047s
6. Luiz Razia, Arden, 1:29.065s
7. James Calado, Lotus GP, 1:29.100s
8. Fabrizio Crestani, Lazarus, 1:29.150s
9. Jolyon Palmer, iSport, 1:29.195s
10. Fabio Onidi, Coloni, 1:29.198s

Image courtesy of Craig Boon, Octane Photographic