Damp conditions continued to affect the afternoon session of the opening GP2 test day at Barcelona today (Tuesday 5 March), however Jolyon Palmer was able to lap the circuit on dry tyres when conditions improved late on.

The session started with little improvement to the morning's track conditions, however Jolyon initially ran in the top six as the circuit remained very damp.

Conditions started to improve and it wasn't long before the teams were switching to dry rubber. By the end of the day laptimes had improved by over 20 seconds from the morning's best, and the ever-improving track surface meant that no driver was able to stay at the top of the timing screens for long. Stefano Coletti posted the fastest time of the session, with Jolyon taking ninth, however all drivers will be hoping for a more meaningful second day.

Afterwards Jolyon said: "The track dried quite a bit but there was not a lot of rubber down. We managed to run some new slicks though, and I finished P9. I'm happy with my lap but I'm losing a lot of time in the last sector with a slight issue, so we need to see how we can sort it out for tomorrow. The weather is a big question mark but hopefully it can stay dry and we can have a more productive day."

The second day of testing at the Spanish track gets underway tomorrow at 09:00 (local time) with full reports on Jolyon's official website.

GP2 Barcelona test results, Day one - afternoon:

1. Stefano Coletti, Rapax, 1:29.868
2. Felipe Nasr, Carlin, 1:29.926
3. Robin Frijns, Trident, 1:29.951
4. James Calado, ART, 1:30.239
5. Johnny Cecotto, Arden, 1:30.323
6. Fabio Leimer, Racing Engineering, 1:30.335
7. Stephane Richelmi, Dams, 1:30.350
8. Daniel De Jong, MP, 1:30.487
9. Jolyon Palmer, Carlin, 1:30.505
10. Daniel Abt, ART, 1:30.522