Kamui Kobayashi posted the quickest time for DAMS on the opening day of a two-day GP2 Series test session at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

Wet conditions played havoc with proceedings throughout the day, but Kobayashi was able to post the fastest time of the day during the afternoon session to continue his impressive off-season testing form.

The morning session around the 3D configuration at the high-speed test track started in wet conditions with the circuit only drying out towards lunch-time.

Timing his lap to perfection, Davide Valsecchi posted the quickest time for Durango with a best lap of 1min 18.496secs, which put him half a second clear of second placed Jerome D'Ambrosio. Luca Filippi slotted into third for Super Nova, while Michael Herck, Kobayashi and Oliver Turvey rounded out the top six – the latter only spending half a day at the wheel before handing the car over to fellow Briton Mike Conway for the afternoon.

Conditions were still wet when the afternoon session kicked off, with heavy rain as the day progressed again making it tough on track.

With little time amongst the rain to post a quick time, Kobayshi was able to set a time of 1min 15.434secs which was comfortably quicker than Valsecchi had managed in the morning and was four-tenths of second clear of rookie driver Will Bratt; the Briton impressing for DPR.

Another rookie, Koudai Tsukakoshi, was third fastest ahead of Filippi, Charles Pic and Giedo Van der Garde.

Testing continues on Wednesday, although heavy rain is again expected to play a part in proceedings.