Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service
Stoffel Vandoorne maintained his superiority over the GP2 field by topping practice in Barcelona by more than half a second.
Driving his ART car with a new livery resembling McLaren’s fresh identity, the championship leader’s best time of 1m30.171s put him 0.518 seconds clear of nearest challenger Mitch Evans.
Alexander Rossi repeated his standings position in third place, followed by Pierre Gasly and Nathanael Berthon.
Richie Stanaway took sixth for Status Grand Prix ahead of Rio Haryanto, who sits second in the points behind Vandoorne after scoring his maiden GP2 win in the Bahrain sprint race.
Alex Lynn was a second off the pace in eighth ahead of Raffaele Marciello – who jumped straight from his Sauber F1 practice berth and straight into his Trident GP2 car for the session – and Artem Markelov.
At the Hilmer team’s first race weekend of the season, Johnny Cecotto was 14th and GP2 debutant Nick Yelloly 23rd.
Session results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1:30.171 | 18 | |
| 2 | Mitch Evans | Russian Time | 1:30.689 | 0.518 | 17 |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1:30.767 | 0.596 | 19 |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1:30.810 | 0.639 | 20 |
| 5 | Nathanael Berthon | Lazarus | 1:30.818 | 0.647 | 16 |
| 6 | Richie Stanaway | Status Grand Prix | 1:30.943 | 0.772 | 17 |
| 7 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1:31.010 | 0.839 | 17 |
| 8 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:31.173 | 1.002 | 19 |
| 9 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1:31.191 | 1.020 | 21 |
| 10 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:31.313 | 1.142 | 19 |
| 11 | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:31.414 | 1.243 | 18 |
| 12 | Marco Sorensen | Carlin | 1:31.446 | 1.275 | 18 |
| 13 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1:31.465 | 1.294 | 17 |
| 14 | Johnny Cecotto | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:31.492 | 1.321 | 22 |
| 15 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:31.524 | 1.353 | 17 |
| 16 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1:31.540 | 1.369 | 20 |
| 17 | Julian Leal | Carlin | 1:31.581 | 1.410 | 16 |
| 18 | Sergio Canamasas | MP Motorsport | 1:31.596 | 1.425 | 17 |
| 19 | Robert Visoiu | Rapax | 1:31.888 | 1.717 | 19 |
| 20 | Rene Binder | Trident | 1:32.001 | 1.830 | 20 |
| 21 | Zoel Amberg | Lazarus | 1:32.046 | 1.875 | 19 |
| 22 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:32.108 | 1.937 | 13 |
| 23 | Nick Yelloly | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:32.182 | 2.011 | 21 |
| 24 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1:32.216 | 2.045 | 19 |
| 25 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1:32.243 | 2.072 | 11 |
| 26 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1:51.479 | 21.308 | 5 |