Jolyon Palmer began his on-track preparation for the 2014 GP2 Series in style by topping the standings at the Yas Marina facility in Abu Dhabi on day one of pre-season testing for the Formula 1 feeder series. This was Jolyon's first outing with the DAMS team since announcing his switch to the Le Mans-based squad last November.

Jolyon was fast from the off, setting the third fastest time with a 1m52.232s lap in the morning running. He had in fact set the quickest time but that was removed from the results after he was adjudged to have marginally exceeded track limits.

The afternoon session was even more successful with Jolyon completing 18 flying laps, the fastest of which was a 1m49.126s tour, which proved nearly two tenths quicker than Mitch Evans.

Speaking enthusiastically follwing the day's running Jolyon commented, "We had a really good day today, we ran only the prime tyre and focused on qualifying runs. This morning was good, we were very competitive and in the afternoon we managed to put everything together on a new tyre run to top the times. We ran through our programme well, trying set up changes and practice starts and we managed to save a set of tyres as well so everything was good today!"

GP2 Pre-Season Testing, Abu Dhabi, Day 1 Afternoon Session

1, Jolyon Palmer, DAMS, 1m49.126s
2, Mitch Evans, RT Russian Time, +0.166s
3, Stephane Richelmi, DAMS, +0.630s
4, Daniel Abt, Hilmer Motorsport, +0.651s
5, Stoffel Vandoorne, +0.664s

GP2 Pre-Season Testing, Abu Dhabi, Day 1 Morning Session

1, Rio Haryanto, EQ8 Caterham Racing, 1m50.862s
2, Alexander Rossi, EQ8 Caterham Racing, +0.273s
3, Jolyon Palmer, DAMS, +0.370s
4, Stephane Richelmi, DAMS, +0.617s
5, Felipe Nasr, Carlin, +0.728s

GP2 pre-season testing from Abu Dhabi continues tomorrow. You will be able to follow Jolyon's progress on www.jolyonpalmer.com.