Stoneman bites back in Belgium, but Jolyon hangs on to lead of the championship.

22/06/2010

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Following his sensational Italian clean sweep at Monza last month, Comma-sponsored Jolyon Palmer arrived at the Zolder circuit, 60 miles east of Brussels, with one objective in mind: to protect his position at the top of the FIA Formula Two championship table from fellow Brit, Dean Stoneman, the driver who most clearly threatens to thwart Jolyon's Formula 1 ambitions.

In the event, Stoneman got marginally the better of the weekend's exchanges by reducing Jolyon's overall points advantage from 12 to 8. Stoneman made his intentions clear in the first race - round 7 of the 18 race series - on Saturday, qualifying on pole and leading from lights to flag. Starting from fifth on the grid after he slightly damaged his car in qualifying, Jolyon nevertheless made up one place before the first corner of the race and pulled off two more audacious manoeuvres to complete the first lap in second place. Stoneman, however, had the situation in hand and was heading Jolyon by over 4 seconds when the safety car entered the equation on lap 10. When the green flag was shown to resume racing, Stoneman was not caught napping and pulled away once again to head Jolyon at the chequered flag by over 7 seconds. First blood then, and maximum points, to the 19 year in his Silver Lining sponsored machine.

For round 8 on Sunday, the tables were somewhat reversed. This time it was Stoneman's turn to register a disappointing qualifying performance, meaning he had to start from a lowly - for him - seventh position. His problem was compounded by having to find his way around a stalled car in front of him on the grid, but he immediately dialled into his trademark 'street fighter' mode and joined a four-cornered battle scrapping for third place. Meanwhile, from third on the grid, Jolyon produced another telling first lap effort, displacing front row man Jack Clarke and setting his sights on the 'local hero' pole sitter, Belgium's Benjamin Bailly. That task was stymied by a set of tyres that were unaccountably losing their performance as the race progressed, and Jolyon became more concerned about the diminishing gap between himself and the frantic battle ensuing behind him. Fortunately, this dog fight was costing all its contestants valuable time, and although Stoneman finally prevailed to claim third place, Jolyon had saved enough of his vital 'overboost' allowances to hold him off by a scant 1.057 seconds at the flag. "It was strange, I just don't know what was happening with the tyres, so I was really pleased to see the chequered flag," said a mightily relieved Jolyon.

Bailly was understandably the local toast of Zolder, his winning margin over Jolyon of almost 4 seconds crowning a convincing performance he described as the greatest race of his career to date.

Next stop Portugal, and the Portimão circuit in the Algarve. Most of the Formula Two drivers visited the circuit - completed at a cost of almost €200 million in October 2008 - for pre-season testing during the winter, when Lithuania's Kazim Vasiliauskas topped the overall times. Jolyon, however, was consistently fast throughout the two days, and hopes are high that he can translate that into another major points haul over the weekend of July 2^nd-4^th.

For the time being, it's Jolyon on 139 with Stoneman on 131, barely more than the margin between a race win and second place. Significantly, both drivers are now more than two race wins ahead of third place man and an early season form-horse, Philipp Eng on 80 points. The Austrian endured another wretched weekend, not troubling the scorers, and he's now no more than between 10 and 17 points ahead of the three drivers behind him in the table - England's Will Bratt on 70, Vasiliauskas on 65 and Russia's Sergey Afanasiev on 63. All three improved their points standings over the Zolder weekend.  

At the front though, it's nail-bitingly close between the two British teenagers. This one, as they say, could run and run.

Visit www.formulatwo.com for total coverage and live streaming of every Formula Two event, plus a wealth of background stories on the drivers and other essential features to keep you fully informed on the championship. It's the best, most comprehensive motor sport site on the internet. Honest! There's also complete HD TV screening of every race on Eurosport and Eurosport 2. Don't miss a minute of the action. 

In addition to sponsorship of Jolyon Palmer's car, Comma is also the official Technical Partner to the FIA Formula Two Championship. All 24 of the identical 480bhp Williams F1 designed JPH1B cars competing in the series use engine oils, coolants and maintenance products supplied by Comma.