Jolyon Palmer avoided first lap drama to guide his Arden car to a frustrating 19th place in today's (Saturday) GP2 Feature Race at Germany's Nurburgring.

The 20-year-old, 2010 FIA Formula Two Championship runner-up, managed to avoid a first lap incident and gained two positions on a track, where overtaking is notoriously difficult. The Southwater driver pitted early during the race, but his strategy was unable to bring him into play for a top ten result. Super Nova's Luca Filippi came through to take the chequered flag.

Although he crossed the finish line in 20th, Jolyon was promoted to 19th in the race one results, after Fabio Leimer was handed an exclusion for his part in an incident with Adam Carroll.

"I had an ok start, but I got blocked by the incident on the first lap, said a frustrated Jolyon. "After that I passed Josef Kral in the first stint and then pitted early, he jumped me back in the stops and then I struggled with massive rear tyre degradation. It is a very disapointing final result and we have a lot of hard work to do to find out where we went wrong."

Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2011 GP2 Series take place at the Nürburgring from 22-24 July with full coverage available on Jolyon's official website. Coverage is also available via Eurosport and on Jolyon's Facebook page.

Jolyon will be back on track for Sunday's Sprint race which begins at 10.30am local time.

Nurburgring Race One Results:

1. L. Filippi, Super Nova, 34 laps
2. C. Pic, Addax, +5.5s
3. R. Grosjean, DAMS, +6.8s
4. J. Bianchi, Lotus ART, +33.4s
5. M. Ericsson, iSport, +37.7s
6. G. Van Der Garde, Addax, +41.4s
7. D. Clos, Racing Engineering, +45.9s
8. S. Bird, iSport, +46.4s
9. R. Gonzalez, Trident, +48.4s
20. J Palmer, Arden, +1 lap