Jolyon Palmer endured a frustrating afternoon at Spa after being forced to retire during today's (Saturday) eventful two-hour-long GP2 Feature Race - denying him a likely points finish.

In dry conditions, the 21-year-old lined up in fifth place following a superb performance during yesterday's tricky wet qualifying session. As the lights went out, Jolyon got bogged down off the line to lose a couple of places to lie P7. He soon began to close in on sixth-place Davide Valsecchi though, pressurising the DAMS driver before the safety car was deployed following a heavy crash by Ocean's Nigel Melker at Eau Rouge - requiring him to be airlifted to hospital.

Before the restart, Jolyon, along with the rest of the field, elected to pit but due to the traffic he couldn't be safely released straight away, dropping him down to P12. Then with the damaged Eau Rouge tyre wall needing extensive repairs, the race was red flagged on lap seven. There was further delay due to the absence of the medical helicopter, with the race finally getting underway behind the safety car after a lengthy stoppage.

Jolyon was immediately on the pace at the restart moving up to P10 and battling hard with Luiz Razia into Les Combes as the halfway mark approached. He continued to push the Brazilian going into La Source but with seven laps remaining he was hit as he tried to drive up the inside, damaging the front of his car and cruelly ending his race.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon said: "I got a poor start and lost a couple of positions. After that I lost out with the pit stops as I had to queue up behind Marcus. I dropped to P12 at the red flag but then was coming back through the pack well until Razia chopped me at Turn 1 and ended my race. Our pace was very strong though which is positive and hopefully we can come through from the back tomorrow."

The prolonged 25-lap race was eventually won by iSport's Marcus Ericsson with Lotus driver James Calado in second and Valsecchi in third. Tomorrow's Sprint Race takes place at 09:35 (UK time) with full coverage on Jolyon's official website.

GP2 Spa, Feature Race results:

1. M Ericsson, iSport, 25 laps
2. J Calado, Lotus GP, +11.5s
3. D Valsecchi, DAMS, +13.6s
4. J Kral, Addax, +15.0s
5. G VD Garde, Caterham, +15.4s
6. L Razia, Arden, +16.9s
7. J Leal, Trident, +26.6s
8. F Nasr, DAMS, +28.9s
9. S Richelmi, Trident, +29.2s
DNF. J Palmer, iSport, +7 laps