Vietoris on top in GP2 practice

The German was expected to be at a disadvantage at the start of this season, because he was the only frontrunner to skip the two Asia series rounds earlier this year.

He has also had to settle back into GP2 after making his DTM debut for Mercedes at Hockenheim last week, but he proved that none of those factors have held him back by knocking Romain Grosjean off top spot in the final seconds of the session.

Track conditions improved vastly in comparison to the first Formula 1 free practice session that preceded the GP2 cars going out. But it was still treacherous in the early minutes of the session, and just six minutes in Esteban Gutierrez brought out the red flags with a carbon copy of Sebastian Vettel's crash on the exit of Turn 8.

The Mexican's ART team-mate Jules Bianchi then made the same error, but his contact with the wall on the inside was only slight, and he only had to spend four minutes in the pits before returning to the track to go second fastest at the time.

Grosjean had set the pace for much of the session, as he clearly pushed harder than his rivals in the early running. But as the standing water on track started to clear everybody began to improve their laptimes.

Giedo van der Garde went fastest with eight minutes remaining, and he held on to that until the final minute as yellow flags were out while marshals tried to push Dani Clos's car out of the grass after the Racing Engineering driver spun coming out of Turn 8.

When the track was clear again, Grosjean responded to take first place back at the end, but just seconds later Vietoris (Racing Engineering) came across the line to go 0.2 seconds quicker.

Van der Garde had to settle for third ahead of a relieved Bianchi, while a late effort from Max Chilton put him into the top five.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Christian Vietoris   Racing Engineering  1m43.399s
 2.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                1m43.618s  + 0.219s
 3.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m43.992s  + 0.593s
 4.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m44.697s  + 1.298s
 5.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m44.745s  + 1.346s
 6.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m44.811s  + 1.412s
 7.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m45.066s  + 1.667s
 8.  Luca Filippi         Super Nova          1m45.135s  + 1.736s
 9.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               1m45.281s  + 1.882s
10.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m45.354s  + 1.955s
11.  Davide Rigon         Coloni              1m45.601s  + 2.202s
12.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m45.744s  + 2.345s
13.  Johnny Cecotto       Ocean               1m45.770s  + 2.371s
14.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m45.864s  + 2.465s
15.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m45.888s  + 2.489s
16.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              1m45.932s  + 2.533s
17.  Kevin Mirocha        Ocean               1m46.034s  + 2.635s
18.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m46.202s  + 2.803s
19.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m46.420s  + 3.021s
20.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m46.493s  + 3.094s
21.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m46.641s  + 3.242s
22.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m46.991s  + 3.592s
23.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m47.015s  + 3.616s
24.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m47.269s  + 3.870s
25.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m47.608s  + 4.209s
26.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m49.251s  + 5.852s