Jolyon Palmer fastest for iSport in first GP2 practice at Sepang

The Briton, driving for the iSport International squad this season, set his 1m46.678s best time two thirds of the way through the 30 minute session on the medium compound Pirelli tyres.

Palmer may have been bumped from the top spot not long after, but Valsecchi - on the hard tyre - locked up into the final hairpin on his best lap. The DAMS driver was thus forced to accept second fastest, just 0.164 seconds slower than Palmer.

Carlin's Max Chilton was 0.638s away from the pace in third ahead of one of the championship favourites Giedo van der Garde (Caterham), Fabio Onidi (Coloni) and early pacesetter Felipe Nasr in the second DAMS car.

Another to top the times early in the session, Luiz Razia, was seventh for Arden ahead of ART Lotus's James Calado, Coloni's Stefano Coletti and Josef Kral, driving for Addax.

Kral's team-mate Johnny Cecotto Jr caught the attention of the stewards when he and Esteban Gutierrez (ART Lotus) made contact at Turn 12 as the Venezualen tried to pass the Mexican around the outside.

Cecotto was travelling at a much faster pace, but appeared to go down a gap that was not wide enough for a Dallara, the impact damaging Gutierrez's car and forcing him to pull off the track with only a third of the session complete. The incident was under investigation.

Also being investigated by the stewards was Trident's Stephane Richelmi for a separate issue.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport              1m46.514s
 2.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                1m46.678s  + 0.164s
 3.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m47.152s  + 0.638s
 4.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham            1m47.229s  + 0.715s
 5.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              1m47.318s  + 0.804s
 6.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                1m47.360s  + 0.846s
 7.  Luiz Razia           Arden               1m47.418s  + 0.904s
 8.  James Calado         Lotus               1m47.532s  + 1.018s
 9.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni              1m47.533s  + 1.019s
10.  Josef Kral           Addax               1m47.580s  + 1.066s
11.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m47.616s  + 1.102s
12.  Johnny Cecotto Jr    Addax               1m47.637s  + 1.123s
13.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus               1m47.639s  + 1.125s
14.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m47.644s  + 1.130s
15.  Jon Lancaster        Ocean               1m47.681s  + 1.167s
16.  Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus             1m47.699s  + 1.185s
17.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             1m47.862s  + 1.348s
18.  Simon Trummer        Arden               1m48.246s  + 1.732s
19.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin              1m48.259s  + 1.745s
20.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m48.326s  + 1.812s
21.  Nigel Melker         Ocean               1m48.437s  + 1.923s
22.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax               1m48.447s  + 1.933s
23.  Julian Leal          Trident             1m48.746s  + 2.232s
24.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham            1m48.764s  + 2.250s
25.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax               1m50.549s  + 4.035s
26.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus             1m52.306s  + 5.792s