Jolyon Palmer will start from second on the grid for the GP2 Feature Race at Spa Francorchamps tomorrow, after being narrowly pipped to pole in qualifying.

The 23-year-old led qualifying for the majority of the session with his first effort, a 1m56.857s, proving difficult to beat until Stoffel Vandoorne's late effort stole pole by just 0.018s. Second place is Jolyon's seventh front row starting position for a GP2 Feature Race out of the eight rounds held so far this year.

At one stage Jolyon held an advantage of over half a second, with the DAMS driver significantly quicker than his rivals in the second sector of the lap.

Jolyon's immediate championship rival, Felipe Nasr, could only manage 11th, leaving Palmer well placed to extend his already formidable championship advantage tomorrow.

Palmer commented: "I put in a really good lap on the first push to comfortably fastest. Afterwards I couldn't improve, unfortunately, and just got pipped by Vandoorne at the end.

"It's disappointing to miss out on the pole position, but it's good to be back on the front row.

"The race will be long tomorrow and the weather could be interesting. Anything can happen but it's definitely good to be starting from the front."

GP2 Qualifying result, Spa Francorchamps:

1. S Vandoorne, ART GP, 1m56.839s
2. J Palmer, DAMS, +0.018s
3. M Evans, Russian Time, +0.218s
4. R Marciello, Racing Engineering, +0.398s
5. J Cecotto, Trident, +0.405s
6. J Leal, Carlin, +0.432s
7. N Berthon, Venezuela GP, +0.433s
8. S Trummer, Rapax, +0.445s
9. M Sorensen, MP Motorsport, +0.550s
10. S Richelmi, DAMS, +0.609s