Andy Soucek, subbing for the injured Christian Bakkerud at Super Nova, Asia Series champion Romain Grosjean and Carroll kept the veteran honest, while Kamui Kobayashi pushed hard to make up for the five-place grid penalty he picked up for crossing the finish line twice after morning practice had ended. The effort was a bit too hard as it turned out, for the Japanese driver spun off entering turn one and stalled in the run-off area.
As a result, he will line up at the back of the grid for saturday's race, along with Durango's Alberto Valerio, who incurred a similar penalty, while Ben Hanley will be just ahead of them, in 22nd place, as a result of the ten-place penalty he picked up for causing an avoidable contact, with Jerome d'Ambrosio, in Barcelona.
While Zuber, Carroll, Grosjean and Bruno Senna, who rounded out the top five, look set to provide Pantano's main opposition on Saturday, Barcelona feature race winner Alvaro Parente seems unlikely to repeat his round one form. After stopping on track this morning, the Portuguese driver lost the rear of his Super Nova car going into turn three and spun to a stop in the middle of the next corner. Temporary team-mate Soucek ended the day in 14th spot, two ahead of Barcelona spring race runner-up Sebastien Buemi, as Arden failed to find the right set-up.
Although the marshals were able to remove Parente' stricken vehicle without stopping the session, stress levels rose as time ticked down. Pastor Maldonado, third in practice, lost the rear of his car at turn one, while Luca Filippi almost lost it coming out of the pits after losing time on the weighbridge. Zuber, meanwhile, almost collected the slower Senna as he tried in vain to match Pantano's time before Valsecchi's accident ended the session.
Maldonado, Karun Chandhok, Javier Villa, Valsecchi and Vitaly Petrov round out the top ten.
![Giorgio Pantano - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/432057.jpg)
