Albert Costa tops second Barcelona Formula Renault 3.5 test session as well

The Spaniard and his Epic Racing team utilised the advantage of an extra 'joker' set of tyres for their home round to the full to set a fastest lap of 1m34.421s.

Pons Racing's Nick Yelloly continued his impressive adaptation to the category by ending the afternoon second fastest, just 0.153s shy of Costa.

GP3 regular Yelloly confessed to feeling more comfortable on the LAC (low-aerodynamic configuration), used in Friday afternoon's collective tests and mandatory during all Saturday races, than with a higher downforce set-up.

"We were fast this morning," said Yelloly "but when I put the fresher set of tyres on I didn't get it together. It's a shame we were only ninth. I shouldn't be disappointed but I am. This afternoon we were running on old tyres, so we did quite a bit of running and made a lot of changes just to see how the car would react. On new tyres I was competitive straight away, and did my best lap on lap two."

Yelloly's team-mate Oliver Webb also showed well before being slowed by a hydraulic problem that disrupted his gearbox's downchanges. The Briton ended the afternoon in ninth.

Having run on old tyres this morning, championship leader Robert Wickens benefited from a new tyre run to claim third place this afternoon.

Team-mate and championship adversary Jean-Eric Vergne opted to mount new tyres earlier in the session. The 2010 British Formula 3 champion moved to the top of the timesheets with just under 25 minutes of the hour and fifteen minute session remaining, before slipping to 11th.

Among several surprise packages of the afternoon were KMP Racing's Anton Nebylitskiy in fourth, P1 Motorsport's Walter Grubmuller in fifth, and 2009 Italian Formula 3 champion Daniel Zampieri - who completed the top six for BVM Target.

Zampieri and Nebylitskiy enjoyed periods at the head of the timing screens, as did early pacesetter Brendon Hartley (Gravity-Charouz). The Kiwi was usurped from top spot by Costa with three-quarters of an hour remaining, and finished the afternoon in an eventual seventh place.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Albert Costa       Epic             1m34.268s
 2.  Nick Yelloly       Pons             1m34.421s  + 0.153s
 3.  Robert Wickens     Carlin           1m34.462s  + 0.194s
 4.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m34.502s  + 0.234s
 5.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m34.678s  + 0.410s
 6.  Daniel Zampieri    BVM Target       1m34.804s  + 0.536s
 7.  Brendon Hartley    Gravity-Charouz  1m34.899s  + 0.631s
 8.  Sergio Canamasas   BVM Target       1m34.996s  + 0.728s
 9.  Oliver Webb        Pons             1m35.000s  + 0.732s
10.  Daniil Move        P1               1m35.096s  + 0.828s
11.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Carlin           1m35.097s  + 0.829s
12.  Nelson Panciatici  KMP              1m35.185s  + 0.917s
13.  Nathanael Berthon  ISR              1m35.283s  + 1.015s
14.  Alexander Rossi    Fortec           1m35.342s  + 1.074s
15.  Kevin Korjus       Tech 1           1m35.347s  + 1.079s
16.  Stephane Richelmi  Draco            1m35.472s  + 1.204s
17.  Arthur Pic         Tech 1           1m35.473s  + 1.205s
18.  Sten Pentus        Epic             1m35.490s  + 1.222s
19.  Adrien Tambay      Draco            1m35.609s  + 1.341s
20.  Jake Rosenzweig    Mofaz            1m35.813s  + 1.545s
21.  Cesar Ramos        Fortec           1m35.819s  + 1.551s
22.  Jan Charouz        Gravity-Charouz  1m36.101s  + 1.833s
23.  Fairuz Fauzy       Mofaz            1m36.356s  + 2.088s
24.  Daniel de Jong     Comtec           1m36.469s  + 2.201s
25.  Daniel McKenzie    Comtec           1m37.209s  + 2.941s