Josef Kral's GP2 return got off to the best start in this morning's free practice session in Barcelona, with the Czech setting the best laptime of the session ahead of James Calado and Felipe Nasr.

Kral's best lap stopped the clock at 1:31.109, just a tenth of a second ahead of his closest rivals in a tight session which saw 19 drivers set a time within a second of the Czech, the close times an indication of the amount of laps the teams have put in at the Spanish circuit.

With track temperatures at 36° the field ran on soft tyres for the first time on the circuit, but with no off track excursions it was clear that the change went well: with temperatures rising after the session it will be a new challenge to be negotiated by the teams in this afternoon's qualifying session.

Behind the top three drivers Giedo van der Garde, Tom Dillman, series leader Davide Valsecchi, Fabrizio Crestani, Stefano Coletti and Luiz Razia will all fancy their chances of claiming P1 for tomorrow's feature race in just a few hours time.