Palmer sets GP2 practice pace in Monaco

Points leader Jolyon Palmer (pictured) set the fastest time in GP2 free practice in Monaco on Thursday morning.

After a brief rain shower, the track was dry for the 45-minute session. As ever in Monaco, finding a clear lap was the order of the day, but it was not until the end of the session, with dark clouds looming, that drivers tried the much quicker super-soft tire.

Palmer rattled off his 1m20.707s lap after a red flag, caused when former Carlin teammate Felipe Nasr crashed at the Nouvelle Chicane.

Trident's Johnny Cecotto Jr. showed he will also be gunning for pole for the second year in succession, however, with his 1m21.043s best set on his second lap on the softer tire due to being held up on his first flyer.

Palmer's DAMS teammate Stephane Richelmi was third quickest, 0.866sec off the Briton's mark, with the first of the soft-tire runners, last year's winner Stefano Coletti of Racing Engineering, ending the session in fourth.

Russian Time's Mitch Evans was fifth fastest despite hitting Andre Negrao – returning to Arden after a back injury kept him out at Barcelona – on the exit of Rascasse.

Nasr had been second fastest when he went off on his first flying lap on super-softs. He plowed into the tire wall at Nouvelle Chicane after missing his braking point and getting launched by a curb. He had clipped the wall exiting Portier just moments earlier. Nasr fell to eighth in the times, behind Sergio Canamasas in sixth and Rio Haryanto.

Nathanael Berthon was the first car to crash out, going straight on into the barriers at Anthony Noghes at the end of his out-lap.