Sergio Perez set the running in this morning's free practice session at his Addax team's home circuit in Valencia, claiming the best time in the session ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Davide Valsecchi.

The top three swapped fastest laps throughout until the Mexican made the top position his own with a best lap of 1:46.670 just minutes before the chequered flag, putting himself two tenths ahead of his Venezuelan rival.

All of the drivers were straight out on track when the green light came on, although Dani Clos didn't make it to the first turn as he ground to a halt and waited for the marshals to push him back to the pits. Maldonado and Valsecchi were immediately swapping fastest laps until Sam Bird went into turn 13 too quickly and lost his rear wing against the barriers, prompting red flags in order to clean up the debris.

When the lights went green once again the pair were immediately back on the pace, joined this time by Perez who struggled a little with traffic before finally finding some space and immediately setting the pace, running fastest lap after fastest lap, with his rivals seemingly unable to respond.

Until, that is, Valsecchi came in with 3 minutes remaining for an aero tweak and a last lap dash: the Italian set the fastest first sector but yellow flags further around the track meant he had to make do with P3 in the session, ahead of Christian Vietoris, Jules Bianchi, Charles Pic, Jerome d'Ambrosio and Luiz Razia.

But with the promise of more pace to come, traffic notwithstanding, this afternoon's qualifying session is set to provide entertainment on track as scorching as the weather above it.