Jolyon Palmer took full advantage of the first fully dry running of the GP2 test in Barcelona to finish fourth quickest during this morning's (Thursday, 7 March) session.

Following two days of wet weather, drivers were finally blessed with clear skies for the third and final test day at the Spanish track and the last opportunity to fine-tune setups before the opening rounds of the season in Malaysia in two weeks' time.

With the circuit still damp early on, Jolyon opted to focus on practice starts before taking to the track and quickly lapping inside the top 10. As conditions continued to improve so did the lap times with the entire field now switching to slicks.

Jolyon, racing in his third season of the F1 feeder-series with Carlin, continued to show strong pace to go P4 at the chequered flag and less than half a second off the top spot. That belonged to Rapax's Stefano Coletti with the DAMS pairing of Marcus Ericsson and Stéphane Richelmi finishing second and third respectively.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon said: "We had a good morning usng both compounds of tyre. I found a good gain on the option and was P4. We still have a lot of tyres left for this afternoon so we will do more work on qualifying set up."

Testing continues this afternoon with full coverage on Jolyon's official website.

GP2 Barcelona test results, Day three - morning:

1. S Coletti, Rapax, 1:29.055s
2. M Ericsson, Dams, 1:29.217s
3. S Richelmi, Dams, 1:29.453s
4. J Palmer, Carlin, 1:29.467s
5. S Canamasas, Caterham, 1:29.611s
6. J Calado, ART, 1:29.624s
7. K Giovesi, Lazarus, 1:29.812s
8. M Evans, Arden, 1:29.902s
9. D Abt, ART, 1:29.994s
10. A Quaife-Hobbs, MP, 1:30.012s