Jolyon Palmer once again stretched his GP2 Championship lead with a fine second place in today's (Sunday) GP2 Sprint Race in Barcelona, having started seventh on the grid.

A strong start from Jolyon saw him position his car well in the opening corners, making up several positions by going around the outside of turn three despite slightly damp conditions caused by overnight rain.

Jolyon was in third place by the end of lap one and then set about passing Tom Dillmann in the Arden car in front. Palmer pressured Dillmann at turn four and five on lap five before making a brave move stick at the turn six and seven switchback to move into second place.

Palmer immediately closed on race leader Felipe Nasr, getting within 0.5s by lap eight and putting the Brazilian under huge pressure. But in the second half of the race Nasr was able to gradually stretch out a small lead to put the win out of reach for Jolyon.

Jolyon's second place means he has now finished on the podium in every race so far this season, and has once again increased his championship advantage to 22 points over Julian Leal.

Speaking after the race, the championship leader remarked: "I had a good start and first few corners to get up to third. Then I passed Dillmann and started to chase down Nasr but couldn't quite get close enough for a move. In the end I thought I could challenge him again in the closing laps but I started to struggle with the brakes so had to settle for second. Its more good points though and I'm very happy with the weekend overall."

GP2 Barcelona Sprint Race result:

1. F Nasr, Carlin, 26 laps
2. J Palmer, DAMS, +7.6s
3. T Dillmann, Arden, +13.8s
4. A Pic, Campos, +14.1s
5. J Leal, Carlin, +14.7s
6. J Cecotto, Trident, +18.8s
7. S Richelmi, DAMS, +19.2s
8. S Coletti, Racing Engineering, +22.9s
9. A Quaife-Hobbs, Rapax, +30.7s
10. S Vandoorne, ART, +31.3s