Jolyon Palmer's promising weekend at Imola reached a disappointing conclusion when he retired on Lap 1 of Sunday's Sprint Race, after losing power with an alternator problem.

Jolyon had started the race from 18th position, after his hopes of a points finish in Saturday's Feature contest were dashed by a lengthy pit stop with gear selection issues. He made an excellent getaway in today's Sprint Race, gaining several places before his progress was suddenly halted by a technical problem.

The young rookie, who was fourth in Friday's free practice and an excellent eighth in qualifying, will nevertheless be encouraged by his pace throughout the Imola weekend against an outstanding field of drivers - the vast majority of whom have considerable experience in GP2.

"I got off to a good start, gained a few positions off the line and then passed Pic and Leal into Tosa," explained Jolyon. "Unfortunately that's as far as I got in the race as I lost power on the exit with an alternator problem.

"A disappointing end to what had been such a promising weekend. Many positives to take away though and now onto Silverstone testing in a couple of weeks."

Former Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean won the GP2 Asia Championship after finishing fourth this afternoon, whilst Racing Engineering's Dani Clos took victory in the Sprint Race.

Imola GP2 Asia - Sprint Race

Jolyon's next event will be the opening round of the main GP2 series at Istanbul on 6-8 May, supporting the Turkish F1 Grand Prix.