Barcelona GP2 race report

13/05/2013

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Post-race penalty spoils Palmer's podium party.

The exhilaration of landing his first podium finish of the 2013 season was cruelly short-lived as Jolyon Palmer was dealt a 20 second post-race penalty by the Barcelona stewards following the GP2 feature race on Saturday, May 11th. Such is the closeness of competition in this year's championship that the punishment demoted 22 year old Comma-sponsored Palmer from third place to tenth in the results, undoing at a stroke all the fighting spirit Jolyon had shown in translating a sixth row starting position into his best result of the season to date. In Sunday's sprint race, Jolyon made up for the disappointment with a well-judged fourth place from tenth on the grid, following what is quickly becoming his trade mark of making huge positional gains in the opening laps.

Feature race

After showing great pace to finish fourth fastest in the practice session, Jolyon was frustrated to qualify eleventh for the race. But it seems that such set-backs only inspire him because in the race, he had passed four cars to be in seventh place before the end of the first lap. Jolyon opted for an early mandatory pit stop to change from soft to harder tyres, and typically bold passing manoeuvres soon promoted him fifth place. By the end of the pit stop window, he was up to second but coming under pressure from Sam Bird and Carlin team-mate Felipe Nasr, both of whom were on fresher rubber.

As the race neared its conclusion, Nasr got the jump on both Bird and Jolyon to claim second spot behind the eventual winner, Dutchman Robin Frijns, while Bird spun off in turn 3 while attempting an ambitious move around the outside of Jolyon. Only after the podium formalities did the stewards lay the blame for Bird's exit at Jolyon's door.

Sprint race

Starting 10th as a consequence of his feature race penalty, Jolyon avoided the stalled car of Tom Dillman ahead of him on the grid and within a few corners was up to sixth before also disposing of Alexander Rossi to complete the opening lap in a remarkable fifth place.

Conscious of the need to nurse his tyres, Jolyon then held safe station ahead of Kevin Ceccon while at the same time eating into the gap to Johnny Cecotto ahead of him by around a second a lap. With six laps remaining, he was past the Venezuelan and into a safe fourth place, once again chasing his Carlin team-mate, Nasr to the chequered flag behind race winner Stephan Coletti and runner-up Robin Frijns.

"I got a good start and from then I was just saving tyres as the degradation is massive here", said Jolyon after the race. "I pressed on near the end and put a pass on Cecotto to finish fourth. It's a shame to just miss out on the podium, but overall I'm happy with the pace we've shown this weekend and the results we've deserved."

Jolyon remains sixth in the GP2 standings heading to the next round in Monaco, scene of his maiden GP2 win in 2012.