Bahrain GP2 race report

22/04/2013

High Quality Jpeg (1.44 MB) High Quality Jpeg (1.76 MB) High Quality Jpeg (1.86 MB)

Fighting performances reward Palmer in Bahrain

Jolyon Palmer enjoyed a fruitful and promising weekend in the GP2 points at the Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain on April 20/21st. Comma-sponsored Jolyon improved from twelfth place on the grid to finish fifth in Saturday's feature race, and claimed a hotly contested sixth place in the following day's sprint encounter. As the GP2 teams now head for the first European round of the championship in Barcelona on May 11/12th, 22 year old Jolyon has improved his position to sixth in the overall points table with eighteen races remaining and all still to play for.

Bahrain feature race

Jolyon paid the price for a minor error when he ran wide in qualifying, resulting in a sixth row starting slot. But just as he had in Malaysia, he quickly set about making amends when the lights went out for the start of the race and he was soon fighting for sixth place in the opening laps. Passing Alexander Rossi for fifth place, Jolyon made an early stop to change tyres on lap nine, and was settled into fourth place before his tyres started to go away in the latter stages of the race and he had to concede the place to his Carlin team mate Felipe Nasr.

"I was really pleased with my start, I made a lot of places and then managed to pass Rossi at the end of lap one for P5" said Jolyon. "I was jumped in the stops by him though as I had a slight issue with anti-stall. After that I was in fourth for the second half of the race trying to save tyres in behind Rossi. Ultimately I ended up losing them near the end and dropped to fifth with two laps to go. I'm happy with the result though from 12th on the grid. We start fourth tomorrow and have a bit of work to do on the setup but I'm confident of a good race again."

Bahrain sprint race

Staring from fourth place on the grid, Jolyon was squeezed wide at the first turn and had to take avoiding action as two cars collided ahead of him. This left him with plenty to do as he completed the first lap in eighth place behind Fabio Leimer and James Calado on the tail of the leading group. Passing Calado in the early stages of the race, he set about hunting down Leimer who was attacking Adrian Quaife-Hobbs for fifth place, with the four leaders now drawing away. A dive down the inside of Leimer saw Jolyon promoted to sixth, but Calado then took the place away, passing both him and Quaife-Hobbs to pull out a couple of seconds and claim fifth at the flag.

Afterwards Jolyon said: "I had a really bad start with too much wheel spin and then 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 I started but it's an OK result based on where we were at the end of the first lap."