Soucek tops Barcelona test

Soucek, who had run in the top six for most of the day, set the pace in 1m38.910s with 10 minutes of the final session remaining.

The Spaniard's late effort pushed Milos Pavlovic, who had occupied the top spot for most of the final hour, into second place by a little over three tenths of a second.

"I knew we had good pace but I wasn't expecting to be that fast," said Soucek. "I am still really fired up for this weekend.

"There is a lot of work to do, but I am fully focussed on taking each session as it comes later in the week."

With drivers only allowed to use the powerboost system in the final session, most of them lowered their times significantly late on.

Canadian Robert Wickens and Frenchman Julien Jousse were next up with Philipp Eng fifth.

The star performer was Formula Palmer Audi graduate Tristan Vautier. The Frenchman was quickest of all in the non-boost sessions, ahead of his series debut this weekend.

"It felt great," he said. "The paddle shift is fantastic and the power and grip levels are so much better than the Formula Palmer Audi car.

"I never expected to be so quick but I have to keep my feet on the ground. I was running on new tyres while many others were on used rubber. There is still a lot of time to be found, but I am really enjoying it."

Vautier was relegated to sixth in the final session, ahead of Mikhail Aleshin, who spun twice earlier in the day.

Tobias Hegewald, Sebastian Hohenthal, Jens Hoing and Nicola de Marco all went off-course during the morning, with the red flags coming out on a few occasions.

Pos  Driver         Time       Gap
 1.  Soucek         1m38.910s
 2.  Pavlovic       1m39.214s  + 0.304s
 3.  Wickens        1m39.247s  + 0.337s
 4.  Jousse         1m39.309s  + 0.399s
 5.  Eng            1m39.475s  + 0.565s
 6.  Vautier        1m39.494s  + 0.584s
 7.  Aleshin        1m39.350s  + 0.440s
 8.  Vasiliauskas   1m39.608s  + 0.698s
 9.  Moore          1m39.946s  + 1.036s
10.  Bortolotti     1m39.653s  + 0.743s
11.  De Marco       1m40.039s  + 1.129s
12.  Hegewald       1m40.305s  + 1.395s
13.  Palmer         1m40.320s  + 1.410s
14.  Hohenthal      1m40.524s  + 1.614s
15.  Brundle        1m40.593s  + 1.683s
16.  Iaconelli      1m40.659s  + 1.749s
17.  Sanchez        1m40.676s  + 1.766s
18.  Clarke         1m40.916s  + 2.006s
19.  Ebrahim        1m41.024s  + 2.114s
20.  Hancock        1m41.104s  + 2.194s
21.  Gachnang       1m41.160s  + 2.250s
22.  Karjalainen    1m41.476s  + 2.566s
23.  Hoing          1m41.757s  + 2.847s
24.  Gandolfi       1m43.474s  + 4.564s