Dutch driver Renger van der Zande (right) put his stamp on the GP3 Series by dominating almost from the beginning of today's opening free practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya. The RSC Mucke Motorsport driver posted a time of 1:38.664 and finished just ahead of team mate Nigel Melker, an impressive showing from the Ralf Schumacher led race team.

However, it wasn't plain sailing for the Dutch driver. With Gutierrez hot on his heels and just six minutes remaining, van der Zande was shown a black and orange flag for a broken mirror he picked up earlier in the session. But, despite a last-gasp effort from Gutierrez, the Mexican was unable to match the flying Dutchman and had to settle for third.

With fresh rubber on his Status GP car Robert Wickens moved towards the top of the time sheets and finished the session in fourth spot posting a time of 1:38.974. Four tenths of a second behind Wickens was Manor Racing driver James Jakes, followed by his teammate and GP3 newcomer Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. Despite ending his session prematurely deep in the gravel after just five laps, Addax Team driver Mirko Bortolotti managed to finish the session in seventh spot. Eighth was the Italian's teammate Pablo Sanchez Lopez. ART's Alexander Rossi had an afternoon to forget, ending his session out on track and ninth in the final timings. Rounding out the top ten was Dean Smith (Carlin).

MW Arden's top driver was Michael Christensen in eleventh just ahead of the newly signed Addax Team driver Felipe Guimaraes. Simon Trummer recovered from an early bump in the pits with his teammate to bring his GP3 car home in thirteenth. Atech CRS GP driver Oakes only took part in the session briefly as mechanical issues meant he failed to finish the first lap.