Jolyon Palmer finished sixth in a treacherous GP2 Feature Race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium's Ardennes mountains this afternoon, maintaining his points-scoring record in every race this season.

Jolyon started from second place on the grid, his seventh front row starting position of the year from the eight rounds so far - but his side of the grid was still very wet from the rain that had affected the earlier F1 qualifying session, while the pole-side of the grid was much drier. The consequence of this disadvantage was wheelspin on getaway, meaning Jolyon lost a handful of positions on the run to La Source hairpin and was in eighth place, in heavy rain, at the end of lap one.  

As the rain intensified, track conditions became nearly impossible, and the Safety Car was deployed before the race was brought to a temporary halt on lap three, with Jolyon running seventh.

The race resumed some 20 minutes later behind the Safety Car, but with positions taken from the lap before the Safety Car was dispatched, meaning Jolyon restarted from eighth. Jolyon settled into the race and began to close on Mitch Evans ahead of him. As he did so, Simon Trummer and Nathanel Berthon in front of him collided, promoting Jolyon to sixth place.

With Jolyon getting closer to fifth-placed Evans, the DAMS team called Palmer into the pits on lap 14 for a fresh set of wet tyres. He rejoined the race in ninth and soon posted his fastest lap of the race, very nearly the overall fastest lap seen up to that point. As those in front made their pit stops, Jolyon regained sixth place, a position he held until the flag.

This result means Jolyon starts from third place on the grid for tomorrow's (Sunday) Sprint Race. He continues to hold a sizeable championship lead over Felipe Nasr of 39 points. 

Jolyon commented: "That was a really tough race. I had a terrible start and dropped down the order. After that, the rain came down really hard and the race was red flagged.

"On the restart it was OK, I was stuck in traffic and when we pitted early I had good initial pace to jump up the order a bit. We killed the tyres in one or two laps though and I was really struggling at the end and trying to hang on to sixth. I managed it and was very pleased to see the chequered flag!

"Starting from third tomorrow, we have work to do if it's wet again, but hopefully it will be dry!"

GP2 Spa Francorchamps, Feature Race result:

1. R Marciello, Racing Engineering, 25 laps
2. S Vandoorne, ART GP, +2.0s
3. J Cecotto, Trident, +35.3s
4. F Nasr, Carlin, +39.8s
5. M Evans, Russian Time, +50.5s
6. J Palmer, DAMS, +60.1s
7. A Markelov, Russian Time, +61.1s
8. D Abt, Hilmer, +61.7s
9. A Negrao, Arden, +62.8s
10. D De Jong, MP Motorsport, +65.4s