After battling to 14th and taking an excellent tenth place in the opening two races of the 2011 GP2 Asia series, Jolyon Palmer currently lies 15th in the overall standings - making him the top rookie in Abu Dhabi.

As the Asia series prepares to move on to Bahrain for the second round this weekend (17-19 February), Jolyon took a moment to reflect on an accomplished opening weekend in GP2...

"My first GP2 race weekend was always going to be a big new experience and overall I'm pretty satisfied with how it went - at the end of the day 14th in race one and 10th in race two was pleasing. Having said that GP2 is clearly very tough, as I knew it would be, and as many drivers showed it is so easy to be right at the bottom if you have problems.

"Coming into the weekend testing had gone reasonably well but you never really find out where you actually are in terms of pace until the first weekend. Practice was a new experience for me because it was just 30 minutes to fine tune the car before qualifying and the track had changed significantly from the 4 days of testing. P14 was not too bad, however I was still hoping for more in qualifying. Qualifying didn't go to plan however as I struggled a lot on braking and with many big braking zones at the Abu Dhabi circuit I was left in 18th on the grid - a bit of a disappointment considering my pre season testing form. Nevertheless there were still some much more experienced people behind me and the field was extremely tight with just 1.7s separating 1st and 26th around a fairly long track. 

"Race one started well and I managed to move up a number of places at the start, however because I started on my qualifying tyres they were heavily flat spotted and it made braking difficult once again in the early stages of the race. A long first stint may not have been the best strategy as well as other drivers behind were able to benefit from using new tyres earlier. After my stop I was enjoying coming through the field and was pleased to pass Jakes and Herck, though I was annoyed to then get hit and spun round by Herck. I lost seven seconds and three places but enjoyed fighting back, closing the gap and overtaking Jakes and Cecotto again to get a satisfying 14th by the flag.

"Race two was a serious lesson in tyre management - I have a bit to learn! I was pleased to make another good start and had some good scraps on the first lap. But then I overworked my tyres and the rears went off quite a lot. From then on it was a real challenge to hang on to my position from Charles Pic, as I had no traction and lots of oversteer. I managed to hold him off for many laps but eventually he got by. I managed to hang on to 12th though, with the bonus of that becoming 10th after a couple of other drivers were penalised.

"I am extremely happy with the Arden team, we are working very well together and with help from the vital experience of Josef Kral, my team mate, I hope I can progress towards the front of the grid."

Jolyon will be hoping to carry on his good form when the second round of the 2011 GP2 Asia series takes place at Bahrain this weekend (17-19 February), with his official site bringing you full results and race reports throughout the weekend.