Palmer fastest in wet Brno practice

The championship contender was first up to speed on the wet track and spent the first half of the session around 1.5s clear of his peers. The rest of the times fell during the half hour as a drying line emerged, but Palmer was still a couple of tenths clear at the finish.

Nicola de Marco - who qualified on pole for one of the races at Brno last season - set the second quickest time of the session, with Benjamin Bailly best of the Brno first-timers in third.

Will Bratt was fourth fastest in his first run on the Czech circuit, with Kazim Vasiliauskas, Sergei Afanasiev and Philipp Eng - all of whom have raced here before - next up.

Palmer's title rival Dean Stoneman was just eighth as he learned his way around the track, while Natalia Kowalska and Ivan Samarin completed the top 10.

Kelvin Snoeks was 12th fastest on his return to the series after missing the races at Brands Hatch with a broken ankle.

There were spins for Jack Clarke and Julian Theobald early on while the circuit was at its wettest, before Steven Kane stopped out on track in the F2 test car and brought the session to an early conclusion.

Pos Driver                       Time       Gap    Laps
 1. Jolyon Palmer                2m06.401s           10
 2. Nicola de Marco              2m06.605s  +0.204    9
 3. Benjamin Bailly              2m06.827s  +0.426    9
 4. Will Bratt                   2m06.832s  +0.431   10
 5. Kazim Vasiliauskas           2m07.121s  +0.720    9
 6. Sergei Afanasiev             2m07.351s  +0.950    9
 7. Philipp Eng                  2m07.684s  +1.283    9
 8. Dean Stoneman                2m07.935s  +1.534    9
 9. Natalia Kowalska             2m08.077s  +1.676   10
10. Ivan Samarin                 2m08.106s  +1.705    9
11. Mihai Marinescu              2m08.185s  +1.784    9
12. Kelvin Snoeks                2m08.315s  +1.914   10
13. Tom Gladdis                  2m08.808s  +2.407   10
14. Ricardo Teixeira             2m09.107s  +2.706    8
15. Jack Clarke                  2m09.224s  +2.823   10
16. Armaan Ebrahim               2m09.324s  +2.923    9
17. Benjamin Lariche             2m09.444s  +3.043    9
18. Julian Theobald              2m11.246s  +4.845    8
19. Plamen Kralev                2m11.496s  +5.095   10
20. Parthiva Sureshwaren         2m13.192s  +6.791   10