GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer narrowly missed out on advancing to the semi-finals stage of the Race of Champions (ROC) Nations Cup this afternoon (Saturday), after three nail-biting heats at the Bushy Park circuit in Barbados.

Jolyon and his Team Young Stars team-mate, DTM race-winner Pascal Wehrlein, were drawn against World Touring Car Champion Jose Maria Lopez and all-rounder Robby Gordon (Team Americas), Grand Prix driver Romain Grosjean and European F3 Champion Esteban Ocon (Team France), and nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen and World Rallycross Champion Petter Solberg (Team Nordic) in the group stage.

Jolyon's campaign began against Gordon in a Euro NASCAR car, and he made a scorching start from the outside lane to lead early on. Gordon, however, was able to capitalise on his great deal of experience in heavy American stock cars, to come back and just win the contest.

Jolyon dominated his second heat against Frenchman Ocon, in the lightweight Ariel Atom. Starting from the inside lane, Jolyon made a great start, was leading by the first chicane, and never looked back as his rival made an error and ran wide into a gravel trap.

ROC veteran Kristensen was Jolyon's final rival, going head-to-head in the bespoke ROC buggy. Jolyon was unfortunate to pick up time penalties for brushing the wall as he attempted to reel in the sports car legend, eventually finishing just over one second shy.

Team-mate Wehrlein beat Lopez and Solberg, but lost to Grosjean.

Team Young Stars won as many heats at Team France but were eliminated from the competition on timings by less than a second.

Jolyon will return to Race of Champions action tomorrow (Sunday) and you can watch live coverage on Motors TV. Keep an eye on www.jolyonpalmer.com for updates.