Palmer shows fighting spirit to score valuable points in Bahrain

West Sussex GP2 racer Jolyon Palmer consolidated his position in the GP2 Series standings during a Bahrain weekend that saw him fight his way to a brace of points finishes.

Southwater resident Jolyon is competing in his third season of the F1 feeder series this year with British team Carlin and he also finished in the top ten twice last time out in Malaysia, overtaking over 20 cars.

Jolyon Palmer

Photo by: GP2 Media Service

A storming start saw him take an immediate sixth place and he then overtook Alexander Rossi at the start of lap two to run fifth.

Tracking the leading quartet, Palmer elected to make his mandatory pit visit early, promoting him to fourth place once all of the stops had been completed.

However his tyres lost grip late on in the race and he was forced to concede a place to team mate Felipe Nasr, taking fifth at the chequered flag.

For Sunday’s Sprint Race, Jolyon started in fourth place thanks to the championship’s reverse grid system. However he was squeezed at the first corner and had to take avoiding action as two rivals collided just ahead of his car.

This meant that he completed the opening lap in eighth place, but quickly gained a position on the track, running behind Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and race one winner Fabio Leimer for much of the distance.

In the closing laps Quaife-Hobbs began to struggle and Palmer took advantage of the situation to overtake both but lost a place to James Calado in the process, ending the weekend with sixth on both the track and in the GP2 championship standings.

Jolyon commented: “Qualifying was a little bit disappointing - the car felt good, I just didn't manage to pick up the cleanest of laps. It's a tight field so a small mistake hurt me and it's frustrating not to have qualified as well as I could have done. I was really pleased with my start in race one and I’m happy with the result though from 12th on the grid.

“In the second race I had Leimer on the inside and Rossi on the outside and I was just sandwiched between them so lost a lot of places to drop to eighth. I managed a move on Calado and then concentrated on saving my tyres.

Towards the end I got a bit stuck behind Quaife-Hobbs which allowed Calado to pass me again. I managed then to pass Quaife-Hobbs to take sixth which is a bit disappointing considering where started but it’s an ok result based on where we were at the end of the first lap.”

Jolyon Palmer