Jolyon Palmer secured a superb third place finish in the GP2 feature race at Barcelona this afternoon (Saturday 11 May), after fighting his way up from 11th on the grid.

The Carlin driver had another fantastic opening lap, moving up to to seventh by the end of the first tour. Then, as the pit stop window opened, Jolyon was among the first drivers to make the change from soft tyres to the harder compound.

The initial leading group of Stefano Coletti, Felipe Nasr and Stephane Richelmi pitted on the next lap, but all resumed behind Jolyon, who was challenging eventual race winner Robin Frijns. Jolyon followed Frijns for the majority of the race and at times was under a second behind the Dutchman, but was unable to move past.

As further drivers in front pitted, Jolyon continued to move forwards, including a brave three-abreast move on Sam Bird and Daniel De Jong when entering the final chicane on lap nine. Palmer then followed that up with a similar move on Adrian Quaife Hobbs on the next lap to move into fifth place.

With the pit stop phase complete, Jolyon was up to second, but with tyres older than those on cars around him, he was forced to mount a fine defensive drive for the final few laps, firstly from Bird, before team mate Felipe Nasr mounted a late charge, moving past both of them into second with four laps remaining.

Bird then spun off while attempting a move around the outside of Jolyon in turn three moments later, and this is currently being investigated by the race stewards. On the final lap Tom Dillmann threatened, but Jolyon managed to hold firm to secure the final podium position, his best result of the year so far.

Jolyon is now fourth in the GP2 drivers standings, while his Carlin team have moved to the top of the teams standings thanks to the double podium finish.

Speaking afterwards, Jolyon commented: "I got a good start then pitted on lap six which looked like the right strategy. I was then saving tyres running in second place for most of the race until Nasr hit me damaging the floor. From then on it was a mad fight trying to hand onto third which I managed."

Jolyon is back in GP2 action tomorrow morning for the feature race, which takes place at 09.35AM UK time.

GP2 Barcelona feature race result:

1. R Frijns, Hilmer, 37 laps
2. F Nasr, Carlin, +3.316s
3. J Palmer, Carlin, +12.290s
4. J. Lancaster, Hilmer, +12.609s
5. S.Coletti, Rapax, +13.329s
6. T Dillmann, Russian Time, +14.325s
7. A Rossi, Caterham, +17.160s
8. K Ceccon, Trident, +17.504s
9. J Cecotto, Arden, +24.013s
10. R Haryanto, Addax, +32.024s

Full coverage of rounds five and six of the 2013 GP2 season at Barcelona, including live timing, will be available on Jolyon's official website www.jolyonpalmer.com, while live TV coverage of all sessions will be available on Sky's F1 HD Channel.