Jolyon Palmer will start the Monaco GP2 feature from sixth on the grid after an incredibly close qualifying session on the legendary Monte Carlo street circuit.

With 26 cars in GP2, traffic at Monaco is an ever-present issue, and to counter the issue the organisers split qualifying into two groups of 13 cars, with the fastest group forming the odd numbered side of the grid (pole position, third etc), and the slower group forming the even numbered side (second, fourth etc).

Jolyon was in the second group of cars in qualifying, which was the marginally slower session. As a result, despite setting the fourth fastest time overall, he will start the feature race from sixth on the grid, having set the third quickest time in his session. Jolyon's best lap was just 0.057s off the pole position time set by Johnny Cecotto, but sixth on the grid still marks Jolyon's best qualifying performance of the year so far and matches his performance here from 2012.

Jolyon's team mate, Felipe Nasr, will line-up ninth on the grid.

"It's quite frustrating to be just 0.04 seconds off and still qualify sixth," said Palmer. "I gave it my all and grazed the walls on both sides but it wasn't quite enough and we came up just short. We'll see what we can do from there. It will be about making some good moves at the start and aiming for the podium."

Monaco GP2 Feature race grid

1. Johnny Cecotto, Arden, 1m21.141s (Group A)
2. Mitch Evans, Arden, 1m21.157s (Group B)
3. Sam Bird, Russian Time, 1m21.509s (Group A)
4. Fabio Leimer, Racing Engineering, 1m21.185s (Group B)
5. Kevin Ceccon, Trident, 1m21.986s (Group A)
6. Jolyon Palmer, Carlin, 1m21.198s (Group B)
7. Julian Leal, Racing Engineering, 1m22.092s (Group A)
8. Tom Dillmann, Russian Time, 1m21.387s (Group B)
9. Felipe Nasr, Carlin, 1m22.163s (Group A)
10. Robin Frijns, Hilmer, 1m21.418s (Group B)

Full coverage of rounds seven and eight of the 2013 GP2 season at Monaco, 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.