Jolyon Palmer endured a frustrating opening GP2 practice session at Monza where set-up issues meant he was unable to gain vital running ahead of today's (Friday) qualifying.

The 21-year-old Brit struggled for pace throughout the 30-minute sun-soaked session, pitting twice to make adjustments but being unable to set a full flying lap. His running was hampered further by two yellow flags late in the session, caused by separate offs from James Calado and Rodolfo Gonzalez, to end a frustrating P20.

"That was a disaster," said Jolyon afterwards. "Everything was bad and I didn't get any sort of lap in. It was a real struggle to do any sort of lap time so we have a lot of work to do before qualifying to find out what is wrong. I'm hopeful that we can find something and turn it around for qualifying."
 
Meanwhile, Max Chilton topped the timesheets ahead of Felipe Nasr and GP2 returnee Luca Filippi.

Jolyon is next in action later today at 16:00 (local time) for the qualifying session with full coverage on his official website.

GP2 Monza, practice results:

1. M Chilton, Carlin, 1:31.850s
2. F Nasr, DAMS, +0.413s
3. L Filippi, Scuderia, +0.541s
4. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +0.551s
5. M Ericsson, iSport, +0.560s
6. G VD Garde, Caterham, +0.613s
7. E Gutierrez, Lotus GP, +0.721s
8. S Coletti, Rapax, +0.842s
9. N Berthon, Racing, +0.980s
20. J Palmer, iSport, +1.621s