Jolyon Palmer set the fastest time in this morning's practice session with a blistering lap around Monza ahead of this afternoon's (Friday) qualifying session.

Jolyon's first effort was good enough to put him fifth in the standings before being pushed down to eleventh as the track conditions improved for the other drivers. Before Jolyon could complete a second flying run the session was red-flagged following a spin from Johnny Cecotto Jr.

When the session resumed Jolyon immediately made an impact, by setting a purple first sector on a lap that would lift him back to fifth overall. His second flying lap after the resumption included a vastly improved final sector which put him top of the standings.

Late in the session Jolyon set purple times in both the first and third sectors to set the quickest lap time by three thousandths of a second from Fabio Leimer.

Speaking after the session, Jolyon commented, "It's a good start.  The car felt great straight out the box and I think other than Leimer's pace we had quite a good lead on the rest of the field. This is one of my favourite tracks and it suits my driving style.  I'm happy we've made a good start to the weekend, we'll just have to see how the tyres are in qualifying." 

GP2 Series Practice, Monza

1, J Palmer, Carlin, 1:32.120
2, F Leimer, Racing Engineering, +0.003s
3, S Bird, Russian Time, +0.231s
4, S Richelmi, DAMS, +0.381s
5, T Dillmann, Russian Time, +0.382s
6, S Coletti, Rapax, +0.412s
7, J Leal, Racing Engineering, +0.466s
8, S Trummer, Rapax, +0.514s
9, M Ericsson, DAMS. +0.591s
10, A Rossi, Caterham, +0.623s

Full coverage of rounds 17 and 18 of the 2013 GP2 season at Monza, including live timing, will be available on Jolyon's official website, while TV coverage of all sessions will be available on Sky F1's HD Channel.