Jolyon Palmer was cruelly denied a potential top six finish on his Nurburgring debut when his stunning drive up the order in today's Sprint race was halted by contact from Davide Valsecchi, forcing both into retirement.

The Southwater racer leapt off the line at the start in tricky damp conditions, climbing from 19th on the grid to 10th at the end of the opening lap, adapting well to the challenging conditions at the German F1 circuit whilst others struggled. The 20-year-old then kept in touch with the battle for the top ten positions in the opening laps.

As the race continued, the track began to dry and Jolyon was one of the first to change to slick tyres. After the pitstop shake-up, he was pursuing sixth place when contact with Valsecchi at the first corner on lap 18 ended his race. Valsecchi was judged to have been guilty of causing the collision and was subsequently handed a ten grid position penalty for next weekend's Budapest feature race.

"I had an unbelievable first lap and made up a number of places, then had some great scraps on the wets before pitting for slicks", said Jolyon. "I was challenging for sixth place and then Valsecchi made contact with me as he came out of the pits on cold tyres. It was very unlucky after one of my best drives of the season, but hopefully my luck will turn around soon and I'll try to bounce back in Hungary next weekend."

Jolyon is next in action on 29-31 July at the Hungaroring in Hungary.

Nurburgring Race Two Results:

1. R Grosjean, DAMS, 23 laps
2. J Bianchi, ART, +1.5s
3. L Filippi, Nova, +7.7s
4. C Vietoris, Racing, +14.3s
5. A Carroll, Nova, +24.9s
6. M Chilton, Carlin, +42.1s
7. S Bird, iSport, +42.4s
8. F Leimer, Rapax, +45.5s
9. J Leal, Rapax, +59.6s
DNF. J Palmer, Arden