Grosjean quickest in free practice

Romain Grosjean has picked up where he left off in Istanbul after setting the pace in this morning’s free practice session in Barcelona, claiming the top spot by half a second from Davide Valsecchi and Jules Bianchi.

The Frenchman set his fastest lap of 1:30.559 just five minutes into the quiet session, with his rivals chipping away at his time over the remainder of the session. With all of the teams testing earlier this year, the session was largely used to fine tune their set ups for the weekend.

Grosjean ultimately set the two fastest laps of the session, with everyone happy to drive within themselves and avoid any unnecessary work before this afternoon’s qualifying session: the closest thing to an incident during the session was when Fairuz Fauzy ran a little too deep at turn 12 and got stuck in the gravel, bringing his track time to an early end.

Behind the top three were Giedo van der Garde, Luca Filippi, Charles Pic, Fabio Leimer, Pal Varhaug and Dani Clos, all of whom were within a second of the top time. But while it’s unlikely that these times will ultimately be representative of this weekend’s pace, it is equally unlikely that qualifying will be so sedate: with the teams and drivers so intimately knowledgeable about the circuit, you should expect a huge battle for pole this afternoon.