Nicolas Lapierre has set the early pace in the final race weekend of the year at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, claiming the top spot in free practice just ahead of Dams teammate Kazuki Nakajima and the Minardi Piquet duo of Xandi Negrao and Roldan Rodriguez.

Lapierre's best lap of 1:19.930 was set halfway into the session as he and Nakajima were trading fastest laps: the Frenchman came out on top by less than one tenth, with Negrao a further tenth behind Nakajima.

The session opened to fine conditions with Mike Conway and title contender Timo Glock trading the top spot between them, with Ho-Pin Tung and Marcos Martinez pushing them hard, before the Dams duo put the hammer down to annex the top positions between them.

There were remarkably few off track incidents throughout the session: both DPR drivers had small spins at turn 11, with Giorgio Pantano also briefly spinning at turn six and Martinez beaching himself at turn 11, but the most notable stop was Markus Niemela, who beached his car at the final turn and brought out the red flags so the marshals could retrieve the stricken Trident vehicle.

With six minutes remaining the session restarted, but little change was made on the timing screens: Rodriguez claimed fourth behind his teammate but ahead of Pantano, Glock, Luca Filippi, Andi Zuber, Mike Conway and Lucas di Grassi.

Provided by the GP2 Series Media Service

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