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Josef Kral fastest for Addax in GP2 practice in Barcelona

The returning Josef Kral was fastest in free practice ahead of qualifying for Saturday's GP2 Series feature race in Barcelona after setting the fastest time on Friday morning around the Circuit de Catalunya

Kral, who raced in the season-opener for Addax at Sepang in Malaysia, was dropped in favour of Dani Clos for the recent Bahrain double-header. With Clos making his Formula 1 race weekend debut with HRT in free practice, a fired up Kral returned and banged in his 1m31.109s 10 minutes into the session.

Before Kral hit the front, most-recent round winner Tom Dillmann set the early pace for Rapax before he was knocked off the top spot by first Felipe Nasr of DAMS and then Caterham Racing's Giedo van der Garde.

Britain's James Calado kept his powder dry in the pitlane in the early stages before going out to set the second-fastest time for Lotus GP, his 1m31.168s just 0.059s off the pace. Nasr stayed third, ahead of van der Garde and Dillmann.

Points dominator Davide Valsecchi was sixth-fastest for DAMS, the Italian suffering a flapping left-sidepod turning vane. Second in points, Luiz Razia, was only 10th fastest for Arden International.

Calado's Lotus team-mate Esteban Gutierrez was down in 18th after a series of brake lock-ups from the man who lies third in the championship.

Laps were limited in practice, as Pirelli has mandated the soft-compound option tyre for this event, which is likely to be used effectively as a qualifying tyre this afternoon.

As teams are limited with their scope for laps on the prime tyre, the drivers did not complete a huge amount of running - only five got into double figures during the 30-minute session.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Josef Kral           Addax               1m31.109s
 2.  James Calado         Lotus               1m31.168s  + 0.059s
 3.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                1m31.238s  + 0.129s
 4.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham            1m31.246s  + 0.137s
 5.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax               1m31.358s  + 0.249s
 6.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                1m31.396s  + 0.287s
 7.  Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus             1m31.400s  + 0.291s
 8.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport              1m31.476s  + 0.367s
 9.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni              1m31.487s  + 0.378s
10.  Luiz Razia           Arden               1m31.717s  + 0.608s
11.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m31.799s  + 0.690s
12.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              1m31.832s  + 0.723s
13.  Johnny Cecotto       Addax               1m31.870s  + 0.761s
14.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m31.895s  + 0.786s
15.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham            1m31.913s  + 0.804s
16.  Simon Trummer        Arden               1m31.997s  + 0.888s
17.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m32.046s  + 0.937s
18.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus               1m32.051s  + 0.942s
19.  Julian Leal          Trident             1m32.058s  + 0.949s
20.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin              1m32.060s  + 0.951s
21.  Nigel Melker         Ocean               1m32.150s  + 1.041s
22.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m32.322s  + 1.213s
23.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             1m32.526s  + 1.417s
24.  Victor Guerin        Ocean               1m33.494s  + 2.385s
25.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax               1m33.605s  + 2.496s
26.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus             1m34.141s  + 3.032s

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