Grosjean sets the pace at Paul Ricard

The Frenchman set his best time of 1:12.031 in the morning session and it proved unbeatable as the rising temperature prevented the cars from improving their times in the afternoon.

Grosjean was relieved to be back at the front after struggling through much of yesterday's session with a vibration in the steering column.

"Yesterday was very frustrating because we changed everything but the problem stayed the same," he told autosport.com. "Today was much improved and I am a lot happier."

Pastor Maldonado bounced back from his exclusion yesterday to record the second quickest time for Piquet Sports, just a fraction ahead of Adrian Valles.

The morning session was delayed by 45 minutes due to fog, but conditions were perfect when running got underway and the cars were immediately under the existing lap record.

Spaniard Javier Villa was quickest in the afternoon's three-hour session, but the rising temperature during the day made all the times a couple of tenths slower than in the morning.

GP2 testing continues at Barcelona, Spain on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

Morning times:

Pos  Driver                 Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Ronain Grosjean        ART Grand Prix            1:12.031   40
 2.  Pastor Maldonado       Piquet Sports             1:12.129   25
 3.  Adrian Valles          FMS International         1:12.155   35
 4.  Giorgio Pantano        Racing engineering        1:12.241   38
 5.  Luca Filippi           ART Grand Prix            1:12.357   22
 6.  Bruno Senna            iSport International      1:12.411   28
 7.  Karun Chandhok         iSport International      1:12.439   15
 8.  Vitaly Petrov          Campos Team               1:12.574   36
 9.  Andreas Zuber          Piquet Sports             1:12.619   32
10.  Davide Valsecchi       Durango                   1:12.652   28
11.  Alvaro Parente         Super Nova Racing         1:12.673   32
12.  Sebastien Buemi        Arden international       1:12.766   38
13.  Mike Conway            Trident Racing            1:12.799   32
14.  Yelmer Buurman         Arden international       1:12.818   24
15.  Kamui Kobayashi        DAMS                      1:12.894   22
16.  Christian Bakkerud     Super Nova Racing         1:12.901   34
17.  Andy Soucek            FMS International         1:12.997   38
18.  Javier Villa           Racing engineering        1:13.057   17
19.  Jerome d'Ambrosio      DAMS                      1:13.190   37
20.  Alberto Valerio        Durango                   1:13.211   42
21.  Ben Hanley             Campos Team               1:13.334   14
22.  Diego Nunes            DPR                       1:13.448   22
23.  Ho Pin Tung            Trident Racing            1:13.577   40
24.  Paolo Nocera           BCN Competicion           1:13.696   30
25.  Milos Pavlovic         BCN Competicion           1:14.383   30
26.  Michael Herck          DPR                       1:14.556   24

Arternoon times:

Pos  Driver                 Team                      Time      Laps
 1.  Javier Villa           Racing engineering        1:12.254   33
 2.  Vitaly Petrov          Campos Team               1:12.285   28
 3.  Romain Grosjean        ART Grand Prix            1:12.313   34
 4.  Mike Conway            Trident Racing            1:12.401   24
 5.  Andy Soucek            FMS International         1:12.408   25
 6.  Adrian Valles          FMS International         1:12.492   21
 7.  Karun Chandhok         iSport International      1:12.540   24
 8.  Andreas Zuber          Piquet Sports             1:12.580   12
 9.  Pastor Maldonado       Piquet Sports             1:12.627   17
10.  Yelmer Buurman         Arden international       1:12.734   41
11.  Sebastien Buemi        Arden international       1:12.751   28
12.  Bruno Senna            iSport International      1:12.767   35
13.  Alvaro Parente         Super Nova International  1:12.773   31
14.  Davide Valsecchi       Durango                   1:12.791   31
15.  Giorgio Pantano        Racing engineering        1:12.822   30
16.  Luca Filippi           ART Grand Prix            1:12.877   21
17.  Kamui Kobayashi        DAMS                      1:12.899   28
18.  Ben Hanley             Campos Team               1:13.060   43
19.  Christian Bakkerud     Super Nova International  1:13.568   37
20.  Paolo Nocera           BCN Competicion           1:13.588   46
21.  Ho-Pin Tung            Trident Racing            1:13.698   40
22.  Milos Pavlovic         BCN Competicion           1:13.772   51
23.  Diego Nunes            DPR                       1:13.820   42
24.  Michael Herck          DPR                       1:13.837   38
25.  Alberto Valerio        Durango                   1:13.855   19
26.  Jerome d'Ambrosio      DAMS                      1:14.147   26