Jolyon Palmer will start tomorrow's opening GP2 race from Bahrain from 12th place after a frustrating qualifying session.

The rain clouds had disappeared by the time qualifying started but there was still a rush to head out onto the Sakhir circuit. Jolyon's initial laps were good enough for twelfth place, alongside team mate Felipe Nasr, during the early moments

Jolyon then pitted at the halfway stage, as did most of the field, but the 22-year-old returned to the track whilst it was still clear. His first flying lap moved him up to eleventh place, and it looked as though he still had a few tenths in hand. A second attempt saw him run wide at the final corner, so he headed for the pitlane, but lost time as he was pulled in for a random weight check.

Jolyon did not return to the track, so was unable to respond in the final moments of qualifying, losing a place in the process. Fabio Leimer repeated his domination of the earlier session to take pole position by almost a second from Marcus Ericsson.

However despite being 13th quickest, Jolyon will gain a place as James Calado was given a ten place grid penalty in the last race.

After the session Jolyon said: "Qualifying was a little bit disappointing - the car felt good, I just didn't manage to pick up the cleanest of laps so I'll start 12th after Calado takes his penalty.  It's a tight field so a small mistake hurt me and it's frustrating not to have qualified as well as I could have done.  Hopefully we can make a good start and be in the top five tomorrow and then fighting at the front on Sunday. 
 
"Tomorrow's race will be all about tyres, which will be a good thing for me as there will be people dropping off the pace and in Malaysia I managed my tyres well.  There will be different strategies which will make it a varied race so it's pretty open at this point." 

You can follow the opening race from Bahrain tomorrow, which takes place at 13:45 UK time, on Jolyon's website.

GP2 Bahrain, qualifying results
1, F Leimer, Racing, 1:39.427s
2, M Ericsson, DAMS, +0.993
3, F Nasr, Carlin, +1.093s
4, S Coletti, Rapax, +1.158s
5, T Dillmann, Russian, +1.262s
6, S Richelmi, DAMS, +1.277s
7, A Rossi, Caterham, +1.329s
8, A Quaife-Hobbs, MP, +1.342s
9, S Bird, Russian, +1.415s
13, J Palmer, Carlin, +1.606s