Jules Bianchi was back in action yesterday at the Yas Marina circuit, taking part in qualifying for the first round of the GP2 Asia Series. The event in Abu Dhabi marks the start of the fourth year of this series, a winter championship run over three rounds, as a prelude to the GP2 series that gets underway in Istanbul over the weekend of 8 May. 26 cars take part in the two races; one today at 16.40 and the other on Saturday at 16.50 local time.

Third in free practice , the Frenchman driving for the Lotus Art team and one of the young hopefuls of the Ferrari Driver Academy, with additional responsibilities as a development driver for the Ferrari Formula 1 team, ended qualifying in second place with a 1.36.448, which will see him start Race 1 from the front row, alongside poleman Romain Grosjean (1.36.041) who drives one of the two DAMS team cars.

Behind them come Air Asia’s Davide Valsecchi (1.36.501) and Dani Clos of Racing Engineering (1.36.614.)

“Today went well, even if towards the end, traffic prevented me from improving my time,” commented Jules once the session was over. “The car is going very well and thanks to the day of testing I know have a good knowledge of the track. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, because we don’t yet know how the new Pirellis will go in the race.”