Jolyon Palmer narrowly missed out on a third GP2 Feature Race win of the season, with a fighting second place in today's event at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. Palmer led for the majority of the race, before Caterham's Alexander Rossi on a different tyre strategy passed him during the pit stops.

The 22-year-old Carlin driver made an excellent start to lead into the first corner from third on the grid, surging past pole sitter Rossi and fending off a challenge from Fabio Leimer. After building a lead of a few car lengths in the opening corners, the race was neutralised behind the safety car due to a collision between Jon Lancaster and Tom Dillmann.

The safety car pitted at the end of lap three, and Palmer made a good restart to build a gap of 0.4 seconds, though that gap was pegged back by Rossi at the end of lap four as Jolyon came under pressure in the early stages. Jolyon set a then fastest race lap at the end of lap six to extend his lead to 0.6s. He continued to extend his lead to just under a second as the lead duo pulled away from the rest of the pack.

Jolyon set another fastest lap on the tenth tour to lead by a second from Rossi, a gap which stabilised over the next few laps before pulling out a lead of 1.6s on lap 15. As Rossi began to slow, the gap extended to 2.3s at the end of lap 16, and he went a second quicker on lap 17 to increase his lead to 3.3s as the pit stop window approached.

Rossi pitted on lap 18 leaving Jolyon clear in front, with the Briton deciding to stay out longer. He pitted at the start of lap 20, with his Carlin team opting for a set of the softer option tyres, thus allowing Jolyon to use a set of mediums in tomorrow's Sprint Race. Rossi emerged ahead after Jolyon's stop, and running on the medium compound.

Rossi had a 1.7 second advantage after the stops, but Jolyon set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 23 to close the gap to 0.8s, while extending a lead of 15 seconds over Fabio Leimer behind him in third. A collision between Sergio Canamasas and Mitch Evans coming onto the pit straight on the same lap brought out the safety car for the second time, and bunching the pack.

The safety car came in at the end of lap 25, giving the field a four lap dash to the flag. Jolyon made another strong restart to stay with Rossi and extend a gap to Leimer behind him, although Rossi pulled out a gap of 0.9s at the end of lap 27. Rossi on the more favourable tyres created a gap of 2.1 seconds to claim the win, with Jolyon settling for second ahead of Marcus Ericsson, but still claiming the bonus points for the fastest lap of the race. Behind them, Fabio Leimer finished fourth and secured the GP2 Drivers' Championship.

The points secured by Jolyon elevate him to sixth in the Drivers' Championship standings, while the points secured by him and team mate Felipe Nasr who finished seventh, means Carlin are now well placed at the top of the Teams' Championship heading into tomorrow's Sprint Race which starts at 9.15am UK time. Jolyon will start seventh on the grid and will be able to use a set of the medium tyres.

Speaking afterwards Jolyon commented: "I am happy with second, but I'm a little frustrated as I think the win was there. The car felt great and we had good pace, I think we just lost out on the strategy a little bit. Having said that we have a set of primes for the race tomorrow so overall I'm happy."  

GP2 Feature Race Result, Abu Dhabi:

1. Alexander Rossi, Caterham, 29 laps
2. Jolyon Palmer, Carlin, +2.1s
3. Marcus Ericsson, DAMS, +3.0s
4. Fabio Leimer, Racing Engineering, +4.6s
5. Dani Clos, MP Motorsport, +5.2s
6. James Calado, ART GP, +6.3s
7. Felipe Nasr, Carlin, +8.8s
8. Johnny Cecotto, Arden, +12.1s
9. Daniel Abt, ART GP, +13.1s
10. Sam Bird, RUSSIAN TIME, +13.5s