Jolyon Palmer posted the quickest time on the second and final day of the official in-season Formula One test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain today (Wednesday). He recorded a best lap-time of 1m26.080s, 0.417s faster than the Mercedes of Pascal Wehrlein in second, and completed 87 laps as part of his role as Third and Reserve Driver for Lotus F1 Team.

The 24-year-old, taking over the E23 Hybrid from team-mate Pastor Maldonado, set his quickest time with just 15 minutes left in the day's running, as he put on a set of Pirelli supersoft tyres to vault to the top of the timesheets. Jolyon could have gone even quicker as the day headed towards its conclusion, but found his path blocked by Jenson Button after posting the fastest first two sectors of the day and failed to improve.

Following a strict development plan of work for the team, the 2014 GP2 Champion improved his time throughout the morning and lapped the circuit in 1m27.439s as the session headed towards its conclusion. At the lunch break, Jolyon had completed 40 laps in the initial four-hours of running and was second in the timesheets behind Wehrlein.

The Southwater ace racked up 47 laps in the afternoon session, which was interrupted twice with two red flags caused by the stricken cars of Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly. Jolyon continued his programme showing strong consistency by setting a lap-time of 1m27.651s, just 0.2s shy of his best time in the morning. With half an hour left in the session, Jolyon improved his time once again, dropping down to a 1m27.148s, before he switched tyres to set the fastest lap of the day.

Jolyon's time was the second quickest across the two day official in-season test, only behind the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg who claimed victory in the Spanish Grand Prix at the circuit last weekend (10 May). The Brit had experienced the Barcelona track on the Friday as he finished a strong 13^th position in Free Practice One, the opening session of the Grand Prix weekend.

Jolyon said: "It was great to be in the car for a full day of productive testing especially here in Barcelona where I tested in the pre-season and then drove in FP1. I think we've made real progress as a team with the set-up of the car and I know I'm improving every time I get in the car. We ran through a lot of different programmes and assessments and it was a great day at the office for me."

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director, Lotus F1 Team: "Today was a solid day of testing and evaluation and Jolyon delivered everything we wanted and expected of him. The morning was more focused on aero assessments whilst in the afternoon we looked more at set-up permutations. Our focus was general improvement to the car and data collection as well as looking at potential gains for Monaco next week. We've plenty to work on back at Enstone before we return to race action next week."

Barcelona in-season F1 test, Day two overall times:

1. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus F1 Team, 1m26.080s, 87 laps
2. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1m26.497s, 137 laps 
3. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 1m26.683s, 75 laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m26.927s, 100 laps
5. Alex Lynn, Williams, 1m26.967s, 52 laps
6. Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1m27.520s, 94 laps
7. Esteban Gutierrez, Ferrari, 1m27.930s, 119 laps
8. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1m27.997s, 126 laps
9. Raffaele Marciello, Sauber, 1m28.829s, 75 laps