Italy GP2 race report

08/09/2014

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Comma-sponsored Jolyon Palmer turned a potentially disastrous situation into triumph at the fabled Autodromo di Monza, Italy, over the weekend of September 6/7th. Excluded from his fourth place qualifying position because of a technical infringement relating to the minimum 1 litre of fuel left in his car at the end of the session, Palmer was relegated to start 26th and last on the grid for Saturday's 30 lap GP2 Feature race. The parameters of damage limitation were stark; championship leader Palmer had to finish in the top ten and/or post the fastest race lap to salvage any points at all from the race.
Under such intense pressure, Palmer responded with a steely performance that arguably bettered any in his four-year GP2 career to date, battling through the field to claim an eighth place finish while also setting the fastest lap of the race. That eighth place was critical, meaning that he claimed pole position under the reverse order grid regulations for Sunday's 21 lap Sprint race. No less significant, it meant that he ceded only two points to his closest challenger, Williams F1 test driver and his former team-mate, Felipe Nasr of Brazil, who finished just two places ahead of him, but would have to start the Sprint contest from the second row..... directly behind Palmer! The stage was set for a compelling finalé to the weekend.

Practise and Qualifying

As ever in GP2, the practise and qualifying margins were incredibly close, with less than a second covering the top 20 cars in both sessions. Arthur Pic (Campos) headed Friday's official practise runs, ahead of McLaren F1 test driver, Belgium's Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand Prix) with Palmer and Mitch Evans of New Zealand (Russian Time) next up. Racing Engineering's Stefano Coletti of Monaco was fifth, ahead of Switzerland's Simon Trummer (Rapax) and Nasr seventh. Eighth was Raffaelle Marciello from Italy for Racing Engineering, and rounding out the top ten were Palmer's DAMS team-mate, Stéphane Richelmi from Monaco and Hilmer Motorsport's John Lancaster from Great Britain.
Following Palmer's shock exclusion after posting the fourth fastest lap in qualifying, the grid for the Feature race was headed on pole by Vandoorne with Pic alongside him on the front row. Evans was third, with Marciello replacing Palmer on the second row. Trummer and Richelmi were fifth and sixth, with Carlin team-mates Nasr and Julien Leal making up the fourth row, and Arden's André Negrão of Brazil (Arden) and Rio Haryanto of Indonesia (Caterham Racing) completing the top ten.

Feature Race

With his deserved reputation for fearless overtaking, all eyes were on Palmer to see what points he and the DAMS team – to whom Comma is also Technical Partner - could rescue from the race. The strategy was for Jolyon to start on the harder tyres and go as deep into the race as possible before having to make the mandatory pit stop and change to the softer, faster compound for extra pace on a lighter fuel load in the latter phase of the race. It worked a treat, with Jolyon completing the opening lap in 20th place, advancing relentlessly to gain a further five places by lap 4 and be running 11th on lap 10. As the leaders made earlier pit stops, Palmer was up to fourth on lap 14 and third on lap 18 before making his own pit stop on lap 20 and returning to the fray in tenth position. Now, only Leal and Coletti stood between him and the invaluable pole position for the Sprint race, and Jolyon was not to be denied, disposing of them both while posting the fastest lap of the race on lap 25 and coming within half a second of depriving the Danish rookie Marcus Sørensen (MP Motorsport) - who had started fourteenth - of seventh place. Up front, Vandoorne and Pic duly translated their starting positions into gold and silver, with Evans third on the podium and Richelmi fourth, underpinning DAMS' lead in the team title competition. Negrão had a strong race from ninth on the grid to finish fifth ahead of Nasr, while Coletti and Venezuela's Johnny Cecotto (Trident) rounded out the top ten points scorers behind Sørensen and Palmer.

Sprint Race

Fired up by his stand-out performance the day before, Palmer was in no mood to settle for anything less than an outright win in Sunday's Sprint race, and he obliged with a lights-to-flag victory to crown his and the DAMS team's stellar weekend. Coletti made a hard-charging effort to pass him in the closing laps, but shot his tyres in the process and Jolyon was able to resist the challenge and cross the line to win by just over 1.5 seconds. Richelmi made DAMS' day and points haul even sweeter by finishing third, with Sørensen once again catching the eye with fourth place. Negrão maintained his excellent weekend form to finish fifth, while Nasr slipped from third on the grid to finish sixth. Pic claimed seventh, the Frenchman finishing narrowly ahead of the final points scorer, Britain's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs (Rapax) in eighth place.
Palmer commented: "It's been the most incredible weekend. The team made a bit of a silly mistake in qualifying but credit to DAMS because they've done the most unbelievable job. Since Friday night, when we found out we'd be starting from the back, we put our heads down and did a really good strategy and race. We knew we had to get into the top eight in yesterday's Feature Race, and we managed that. From there I managed to control the race today."
While he must be counting no unhatched championship eggs, Palmer will be on a well- deserved high after extending his points lead over Nasr to 41 (231 to 190) with two events and the four final races to go at Sochi in Russia on October 10/12th and the Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi on November 21/23rd.

You can follow Jolyon's race by race progress here throughout the season, and get complete race reports and results on the official GP2 Series website www.gp2series.com

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