Panciatici leads first FR3.5 session

The Frenchman moved across from Junior Lotus Racing, now Mofaz, to the Russian-backed French squad over the winter. In a strong showing for Bruno Besson's team, Panciatici's team-mate Anton Nebylitskiy took fourth.

One of this year's pre-season favourites, Alexander Rossi, bounced back from causing a red flag to finish second fastest for Fortec. The American's time of 1m44.183s was just 0.057s slower than Panciatici's benchmark.

"Alexander had a little bit of dirt on his tyres and went off at Turn 12, so he did very well to come back to second," said Fortec team manager Jamie Dye.

On a circuit where he finished on the podium with P1 Motorsport in 2009, Daniil Move claimed third spot on his return to the Norfolk team.

GP3 runner-up Robert Wickens was fifth in a lone Carlin entry. Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne is on Red Bull Formula 1 simulator duties in Milton Keynes and is scheduled to arrive at Alcaniz in time for qualifying tomorrow morning.

Move's team-mate Walter Grubmuller completed the top six. The Austrian has endured a period of illness in the run up to the season after contracting a bug at Jerez and missed two of P1's planned private tests at Portimao and Snetterton.

Behind seventh-placed Stephane Richelmi (Draco), Albert Costa was all smiles after taking eighth for EPIC Racing. The team completed a takeover of Epsilon Euskadi's Formula Renault 3.5 and Eurocup teams shortly before the season, and is fielding a second car for 2010 race-winner Sten Pentus.

"I fought really hard to be here," said Costa. "It's really good, I am so happy because I think, this year, anything is possible."

Dominic Storey is another late entrant at Pons Racing. Storey is the third Kiwi on the grid, alongside Chris van der Drift and Brendon Hartley.

Pos  Driver               Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Nelson Panciatici    KMP              1m44.126s
 2.  Alexander Rossi      Fortec           1m44.183s  + 0.057s
 3.  Daniil Move          P1               1m44.202s  + 0.076s
 4.  Anton Nebylitskiy    KMP              1m44.268s  + 0.142s
 5.  Robert Wickens       Carlin           1m44.272s  + 0.146s
 6.  Walter Grubmuller    P1               1m44.277s  + 0.151s
 7.  Stephane Richelmi    Draco            1m44.296s  + 0.170s
 8.  Albert Costa         EPIC             1m44.459s  + 0.333s
 9.  Kevin Korjus         Tech 1           1m44.471s  + 0.345s
10.  Arthur Pic           Tech 1           1m44.480s  + 0.354s
11.  Lewis Williamson     ISR              1m44.614s  + 0.488s
12.  Nathanael Berthon    ISR              1m44.649s  + 0.523s
13.  Cesar Ramos          Fortec           1m44.689s  + 0.563s
14.  Andre Negrao         Draco            1m44.869s  + 0.743s
15.  Oliver Webb          Pons             1m44.898s  + 0.772s
16.  Sten Pentus          EPIC             1m44.900s  + 0.774s
17.  Daniel Zampieri      Target           1m44.904s  + 0.778s
18.  Dominic Storey       Pons             1m44.953s  + 0.827s
19.  Daniel Mckenzie      Comtec           1m44.987s  + 0.861s
20.  Jake Rosenzweig      Mofaz            1m44.993s  + 0.867s
21.  Brendon Hartley      Gravity-Charouz  1m45.009s  + 0.883s
22.  Sergio Canamasas     Target           1m45.011s  + 0.885s
23.  Chris van der Drift  Mofaz            1m45.254s  + 1.128s
24.  Daniel de Jong       Comtec           1m45.342s  + 1.216s
25.  Jan Charouz          Gravity-Charouz  1m45.370s  + 1.244s