Vergne tops first day at Barcelona

The Frenchman did not take part in the morning running, as his SG Formula car was being driven by fellow rookie Miki Monras.

Despite this limiting him to just 26 laps during the day - less than anyone else - he was still able to set the pace in 1m34.451s.

"For the first day on the circuit and the team's first practice at Barcelona, I'm obviously happy," said Vergne. "It's pretty good for a first half-session. Tomorrow, we're going to improve further."

Spaniard Albert Costa topped the morning session for Epsilon Euskadi, and was fast enough to secure the second fastest time - 0.291s slower than Vergne.

Daniel Zampieri and Daniel Ricciardo, who won the Italian and British Formula 3 titles this year respectively, were third and fourth quickest for Comtec and Tech 1 with the Australian jumping up from 15th place in the morning session.

Monras, P1's James Walker and Draco's Nathanael Berthon were next up while Kiwi Brendon Hartley rounded out the top eight in the second P1 car.

Further down the field, A1GP ace Neel Jani made a surprise appearance for Interwetten. He will vacate the car for the second day to make way for Margueritte Laffite.

Today's times:

Pos Driver                    Team              Time      Laps
 1. Jean-Eric Vergne          SG                1m34.451s   26
 2. Albert Costa              Epsilon Euskadi   1m34.740s   75
 3. Daniel Zampieri           Comtec            1m34.756s   69
 4. Daniel Ricciardo          Tech 1            1m34.778s   69
 5. Miki Monras               SG                1m34.825s   42
 6. James Walker              P1                1m34.936s   50
 7. Nathanael Berthon         Draco             1m34.957s   66
 8. Brendon Hartley           Tech 1            1m35.133s   48
 9. Daniil Move               SG                1m35.190s   76
10. Antonio Felix da Costa    Prema             1m35.356s   82
11. Keisuke Kunimoto          Epsilon Euskadi   1m35.437s   84
12. Filip Salaquarda          RC                1m35.438s   59
13. Jon Lancaster             Mofaz             1m35.516s   64
14. Julian Leal               Mofaz             1m35.626s   82
15. Walter Grubmuller Jr      P1                1m35.682s   50
16. Nelson Panciatici         Pons              1m35.728s   75
17. Sergey Afanasiev          Carlin            1m35.734s   61
18. Neel Jani                 Interwetten       1m35.758s   72
19. Jan Charouz               RC                1m35.808s   79
20. Francesco Castellacci     Draco             1m35.952s   65
21. Pierre Combot             Comtec            1m36.187s   69
22. Jake Rosenzweig           Carlin            1m36.191s   30
23. Michele Faccin            Pons              1m36.622s   91
24. Basil Shaaban             Prema             1m36.790s   72
25. Alessandro Kouzkin        Interwetten       1m36.891s   66