Jolyon Palmer made an impressive GP2 race debut at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi on Friday, eventually finishing 14th from a starting position of 18th despite being tipped into a spin in the late stages

A dramatic start marked the opening to the 2011 GP2 Asia campaign, as Jolyon narrowly avoided Dani Clos' stalled car on the start line. The unsighted Luiz Razia was less fortunate however, his car spearing upside down before crashing heavily into the barrier to bring out the safety car. Later in the lap, Rodolfo Gonzalez failed to notice the safety car boards and crashed as the field ahead slowed, creating further debris on the circuit - a chain of events which ultimately caused the race to be halted for around 30 minutes.

Jolyon had managed to avoid both incidents, and had moved up to 14th from his starting slot of 18th after an impressive getaway. He resumed the race in 14th but soon found himself moving through the field as those ahead made an early mandatory stop, and with 16 laps of the race completed he jumped erstwhile leader Jules Bianchi as the Frenchman pitted to move into seventh.

As others followed Bianchi's lead, Palmer was still able to extricate good performance levels from his Pirelli rubber, allowing him to stay out and move into second at the end of the 18th lap, narrowly behind race leader Fabio Leimer.

Jolyon eventually pitted with 23 minutes of the race remaining, slotting back into 18th, but as Grosjean and his fellow frontrunners struggled to find overtaking opportunities Jolyon made light work of the difficulties and was soon challenging Herck and Jakes in a three-way fight for 15th place.

Jolyon continued to demonstrate impressive top ten pace as he made his way past Herck to grab 16th, but after a well-worked pass on fellow Briton James Jakes misfortune struck as Herck made contact with his rear and tipped him into a spin in the back chicane.

Having dropped to 18th as a consequence, Jolyon's fightback epitomised a highly impressive maiden race as he fought his way back through the field, ending the race in style by passing Jonny Cecotto for 14th - where he had been before being tipped into a spin - on the very final lap.

Jolyon was satisfied with his debut race perfomance, if a little frustrated his finishing position didn't reflect his overall pace:

"I made a good start, but picked up some front-wing damage quite early on and that really hampered my progress. My long first stint didn't work out too well, because other teams derived greater benefit from an earlier switch to fresh tyres, but despite everything this has been a very good experience. I managed to pull off a few good moves and the result would have been better still if Michael Herck hadn't barged me off the road towards  the end. My starting position is a little bit better tomorrow and today's experience will hopefully enable me to move forward once more in the race."

The race win was claimed by France's Jules Bianchi, who withstood heavy and sustained pressure from compatriot Romain Grosjean for much of the race before pulling out a slight advantage in the final stages. Team AirAsia's Davide Valsecchi, the 2010 GP2 Asia Champion, was third ahead of Marcus Ericsson, who passed Guido Van Der Garde on the final lap to claim fourth.

The second race from the opening round of the GP2 Asia Championship commences tomorrow at 13:05 local time. The race will be broadcast delayed live in the UK on Eurosport, starting at 17:00 GMT.