Jolyon Palmer will start from ninth on the grid for Saturday's opening GP2 race in Barcelona following today's closely-fought qualifying session, which saw the top 16 drivers separated by less than a second.

Drivers were quick to get out on track when the 30 minute session got underway, eager to make use of the rubber laid down by the previous Formula 1 practice session.

Beginning on the hard tyre, Palmer ran well early on to run P8 before yellow flags at the penultimate corner, following a spin by Tom Dillmann, hampered chances of further improvement.

After pitting at the halfway stage, the Brit re-emerged on the soft compound Pirelli tyres with 12 minutes left on the clock. However, the track conditions had deteriorated, leaving him unable to improve his time. Nevertheless, he will start a strong ninth in tomorrow's 37 lap Feature Race.

Speaking afterwards Palmer said: "We had quite a strange qualifying. I was one of a few drivers to go out early on hard tyres and managed to be P8. Then we put on softs and I expected to find the pace to be challenging for pole but the balance shifted horribly and I wasn't able to even beat my hard tyre time, which is very strange. Still, P9 is a good starting point and I was quickest of the people who ran the harder tyre so we should be able to progress in the race tomorrow."

James Calado went quickest for the session and will start on pole with Fabio Leimer alongside him on the front row and Stefano Coletti in third.

Saturday's GP2 Feature Race begins at 14:25 (local time) with full coverage on Jolyon's official website and Sky's new F1 channel.

GP2 Barcelona, qualifying results:

1. J Calado, Lotus GP, 1:30.655s
2. F Leimer, Racing, +0.210s
3. S Richelmi, Trident, +0.247s
4. M Chilton, Carlin, +0.307s
5. G VD Garde, Caterham, +0.351s
6. F Onidi, Scuderia, +0.512s
7. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +0.557s
8. S Coletti, Scuderia, +0.557s
9. J Palmer, iSport, +0.614s
10. N Berthon, Racing, +0.653s