Jolyon Palmer was unable to perfect the setup of his car in practice as his Bahrain weekend got off to a start. He ended the session with greater expectations for qualifying.

The session began with a rush onto the track as most of the pitlane set out to record an early laptime. Jolyon's initial efforts placed him in the top ten as he acclimatised himself to the circuit.

However Jolyon headed into the pitlane halfway through the session, joining much of the field as the track fell silent. Several drivers were able to improve before pitting, however, leaving Jolyon in 16th place. Whilst in the garage Jolyon worked with the Carlin team to improve the balance of his car.

Jolyon left the garage with the final third of practice remaining, with hopes of setting a quicker time. However despite posting a personal best first sector time, the track was crowded and as with the rest of the field he was unable to improve further, ending the session in 16th place. Fabio Leimer finished the half hour quickest by a second from Sam Bird and Stefano Coletti.

Afterwards Jolyon said: "We really struggled with the balance of the car, I had some traffic on my lap which cost me a bit but we are some way off at the moment. Hopefully we can find some time in the set up and can challenge further up the sharp end for qualifying."

Qualifying takes place at 14:00 (UK time) with full coverage, including live timing, on Jolyon's website.

GP2 Bahrain, practice results
1. F Leimer, Racing, 1:41.361s
2. S Bird, Russian, +1.060s
3. S Coletti, Rapax, +1.267s
4. A Rossi, Caterham, +1.275
5. M Ericsson, DAMS, +1.305s
6. F Nasr, Carlin, +1.326s
7. J Calado, ART, +1.357s
8. T Dillmann, Russian, +1.373s
9. J Cecotto, Arden, +1.442s
16. J Palmer, Carlin, +1.827s