GP2 newcomer Jolyon Palmer ended a frustrating weekend in Barcelona today (Sunday) after finishing 17th in the sprint race and unable to show his true potential.

Jolyon, who finished as runner-up in the FIA Formula Two Championship last year, battled hard throughout the 26-lap race and demonstrated good pace but was unable to climb through the field - just as he did in Turkey earlier this month to secure a top 10 finish.

The 20-year-old from West Sussex started from P18 as the weekend's second race got underway, gaining one grid place following Romain Grosjean's exclusion from yesterday's race one. Once again Jolyon had to avoid a midfield collision on the opening lap, between Giedo Van Der Garde and Jules Bianchi, leading to an extended safety car period and dropping the Brit down to 20th.

When the race restarted, Jolyon found himself running P21 behind the DAMS car of Grosjean, trying hard to find a way past at the 4.655km Circuit de Catalunya track, which is notoriously difficult for overtaking.

By the halfway stage, a retirement ahead saw Grosjean and Jolyon running 19th and 20th respectively with Palmer lapping just a few hundredths of a second off the former Formula One driver.

Grosjean then began to pull away and gain places with Jolyon, son of former Formula One driver Jonathan, following suit and gaining three places to lie P17 and hot on the heels of fellow rookie Kevin Mirocha.

In the closing stages the Arden International driver tried hard to gain further ground but was unable to, finishing 17th at the flag.

Speaking after the race Jolyon said: "We tried to go conservative on the tyres so the pace was quite bad at the start but the tyres were still degrading quickly so by the end we had no pace at all. All in all, a difficult race and we have a lot of ground to make up in terms of race pace for Monaco. Going to Monaco will be tough too having never been to the circuit before but hopefully we can make some big improvements."

Meanwhile, Rapax driver Fabio Leimer secured the win with Dani Clos in second and Marcus Ericsson in third. Jolyon is next in action on 26-28 May for the next two rounds of the 2011 GP2 series which take place in Monaco.

Barcelona GP2 Race Two results:

1. F Leimer, Rapax, 26 laps
2. D Clos, Racing Engineering, +10.190s
3. M Ericsson, iSport, +20.711s
4. D Valsecchi, AirAsia, +20.926s
5. S Bird, iSport, +27.339s
6. F Fauzy, Super Nova Racing, +38.974s
7. A Parente, Racing Engineering, +40.280s
8. P Varhaug, DAMS, +41.855s 
9. R Grosjean, DAMS, +41.925s
17. J Palmer, Arden International, +65.099s