Jolyon Palmer will start third in tomorrow's (Saturday) GP2 Feature Race at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit.

The 22-year-old Carlin driver looked to be on course for a front-row challenging position, but a mistake on his final lap meant he was forced to settle for fourth, which became third after pace setter Marcus Ericsson was demoted following the session's conclusion.

Jolyon ran consistently at the front throughout the session, and was fastest in the early exchanges. With 19 minutes remaining, he set a quickest first sector time and reclaimed the top spot before Alexander Rossi moved ahead. The field pitted for fresh rubber half way through the session, with Jolyon occupying second place on the time sheets.

With six minutes remaining the qualifying was red flagged when Daniel Abt's ART machine shed a rear wheel, meaning a frantic final few moments when the session restarted after a 10 minute delay.

When the session resumed, the DAMS car of Ericsson stormed to the top of the times, while Sam Bird also improved to reduce Jolyon to fourth. Palmer then posted an extremely quick first sector time and looked set to challenge for a front row position before a small mistake forced him to back off and settle for fourth. However, Jolyon was elevated to third when Ericsson's best time was deleted for exceeding track limits. Jolyon's position is subject to change as new pole sitter Rossi is also under investigation by the stewards. Any penalty could potentially move Jolyon to second on the grid.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon commented: "I think we did a good job tonight after a being a bit off the pace in practice. We made a big improvement and the car was really good. I was on for a pole lap at the end but made a mistake and couldn't improve. I'm happy with third though, we can definitely win from there tomorrow."

GP2 Abu Dhabi Qualifying result

1. Alexander Rossi, Caterham, 1m48.931s
2. Sam Bird, RUSSIAN TIME, +0.310s
3. Jolyon Palmer, Carlin, +0.445s
4. Fabio Leimer, Racing Engineering, +0.554s
5. Tom Dillmann, RUSSIAN TIME, +0.741s
6. Johnny Cecotto, Arden, +0.749s
7. Jon Lancaster, Hilmer, +0.896s
8. Felipe Nasr, Carlin, +0.898s
9. Stephane Richelmi, DAMS, +0.904s
10. Dani Clos, MP Motorsport, +0.915s