Friday, September 21 2012

Jolyon Palmer narrowly missed out on his maiden GP2 pole after a superb performance during today's (Friday) first ever night qualifying session in Singapore.

Despite being his first visit to the 5.073km street circuit, Jolyon showed blistering pace from the off, using the option tyres to give him provisional pole after just 10 minutes.

He then held onto the top spot right until the closing stages by which point all drivers, including Jolyon, had switched onto the prime tyres. GP2 returnee Luca Filippi then just edged out Jolyon with the Brit having time for one last flying lap to reclaim his P1 position.

He was denied the chance though when Nigel Melker hit the wall with minutes to go bringing out the red flags and leaving Jolyon in fourth place - his second best qualifying performance.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon said: "I'm happy with that session. Our pace was very strong and I was provisional pole for a long time on the harder tyres. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do a proper lap on the softer option tyres due to a red flag near the end and I got pipped with a couple of minutes to go and ended P4. It's disappointing because I know we were quick and at the end of the session on the options I should have been quick enough for pole but still we can have a good race tomorrow."

With Filippi in pole, Max Chilton picked up second with Esteban Gutierrez in third ahead of tomorrow's Feature Race, which gets underway at 09:00 (UK time) with full coverage on www.jolyonpalmer.com

GP2 Singapore, qualifying results:

1. L Filippi, Scuderia, 1:59.444s
2. M Chilton, Carlin, +0.052s
3. E Gutierrez, Lotus GP, +0.464s
4. J Palmer, iSport, +0.658s
5. F Leimer, Racing, +0.669s
6. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +0.843s
7. J Cecotto, Addax, +0.891s
8. S Coletti, Rapax, +0.920s
9. L Razia, Arden, +0.921s
10. S Canamasas, GP Lazarus, +1.190s