Jolyon Palmer produced another impressive performance this morning (Friday) to finish the opening session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend in 13th position. Taking over the E23 Hybrid from Romain Grosjean, the Lotus F1 Team Third and Reserve Driver completed 21 laps and finished with a best time of 1m29.676s.

The 24-year-old headed out on track as soon as the 90-minute session began to perform a systems check, before returning to the pits having completed his installation lap. On the hard Pirelli tyre, he took to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya again for his first stint, consistently improving his lap-times and posting a fastest time of 1m30.207s to go ninth quickest at that stage, only 0.097s shy of his team-mate and former Grand Prix winner at the track, Pastor Maldonado. With 60 minutes remaining in the session Palmer sat in 12th  position, just one place behind Maldonado in 11th.

After a lengthy spell in the pits, the 2014 GP2 Champion returned to the action with 15 minutes remaining and clocked a 1m29.676s lap-time to move into twelfth position, 0.434s faster than Venezuelan Maldonado and ahead of the much improved McLaren's of ex-world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Multiple Grand Prix winner Daniel Ricciardo then pushed Jolyon down to 13th, a position the Brit would hold until the end of the session. As time ticked down, Jolyon completed a number of additional laps before pitting just before the chequered flag came out to partake in a pit-stop practice for the team.

The Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets, the German edging out his British team-mate by 0.07s, with the Ferrari cars of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen nearly one-second adrift in third and fourth respectively.

Jolyon said: "It was probably my best Free Practice so far from a driving perspective. It was helpful knowing the track well and I could push early on but there wasn't a lot of grip with it being the first session of the weekend. It was quite windy as well but I got down to a good pace." 

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director, Lotus F1 Team added: "The weather conditions were very favourable and we steadily worked through our usual Friday morning programme bar some extra system checks. We were able to complete our first session aero programme and Jolyon provided us with some valuable and constructive feedback throughout the session."

2015 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix, Free Practice One, Result:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:26.828s
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +0.07s
3. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, +0.978s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, +1.004s
5. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, +1.304s
6. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, +1.701s
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, +1.957s
8. Felipe Massa, Williams, +2.003s
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, +2.247s
10. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, +2.312s
11. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, +2.581s
12. Raffaele Marciello, Sauber, +2.802s
13. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus F1 Team, +2.848s
14. Susie Wolff, Williams, +2.880s
15. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, +2.985s
16. Jenson Button, McLaren, +2.989s
17. Sergio Perez, Force India, +3.268s
18. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus F1 Team, +3.282s
19. Will Stevens, Manor Marussia, +5.643s
20. Roberto Merhi, Manor Marussia, +5.819s