Jolyon Palmer has extended his championship lead to 14 points in the GP2 standings with a well earned second place in today's (Saturday) Barcelona Feature Race, his third consecutive GP2 podium from the three races so far this year.

Jolyon qualified second, but inherited pole position when pole sitter and team mate Stephane Richelmi stalled starting the second formation lap, after the original start had been abandoned because of a stalled car further back.

At the second attempt to start, Jolyon held the lead off the line but was challenged into turn one by Mitch Evans and Stefano Coletti. Evans took the inside line while Coletti chopped across Jolyon's front wing, inflicting minor damage. Coletti and Evans then collided, allowing Jolyon to instantly retake the lead despite the damage.

With various incidents taking place on the opening lap, the safety car was deployed to clear cars off the circuit. The safety car pitted with four laps completed, and Jolyon and the DAMS team took the opportunity to pit early on lap six for the harder compound tyres, having started on softs, resulting in him joining towards the rear of the field.

Moving up the order as cars in front pitted, Jolyon held 12th during the mid point of the race as cars which started on the harder compound tyres stayed out longer. With nine laps remaining, race leader Johnny Cecotto pitted, and returned to the track just behind Jolyon who was now running in fifth, but in a net first position with the runners ahead due to pit.

With the tyre advantage, Cecotto was able to quickly reel in the DAMS driver and pass almost immediately at the final chicane and quickly pulled out an a gap with seven laps remaining.

Jolyon then had to fend off Carlin's Felipe Nasr who pitted at the same time as the Englishman, with Nasr as close as 0.3 seconds behind in the final laps, with Palmer holding him off well to keep second place and extend his lead in the title standings to 14 points over Julian Leal.

Second place means Jolyon will start race two, which starts at 9.35AM tomorrow morning (Sunday), from seventh place on the top eight reverse grid.

Speaking afterwards, Jolyon commented: "I'm really happy with the race. I just managed to avoid Evans and Coletti crashing at the first corner but unfortunately I took small damage to the front wing. Despite this we had a good car and the pace was strong all race. Cecotto was in a different league on race pace though today so the win wasn't possible but I'm very happy to hold off Nasr and keep second."

Barcelona GP2 Feature Race result:

1. J Cecotto, Trident, 36 laps
2. J Palmer, DAMS, +3.4s
3. F Nasr, Carlin, +3.7s
4. J Leal, Carlin, +6.1s
5. R Haryanto, Caterham, +15.8s
6. A Pic, Campos, +16.8s
7. R Binder, Arden, +17.6s
8. T Ellinas, MP Motorsport, +18.4s
9. T Dillmann, Arden, +20.5s
10. A Quaife-Hobbs, Rapax, +21.2s