Jolyon Palmer consolidated his championship lead by finishing seventh in the Monaco GP2 Sprint race this afternoon (Saturday).

Starting eighth on the grid after yesterday's superb victory, Jolyon had wheelspin off the line, dropping down to ninth on the run to St Devote. He quickly recovered to gain two places on the opening lap with a smart move on the outside of Mirabeau while also benefiting when immediate championship rival Felipe Nasr retired with a puncture at the same corner.

Running seventh he paced himself early in the race allowing a gap to form between himself and Mitch Evans in front. Demonstrating his real pace on lap five, Jolyon set the fastest lap of the race at that point in an attempt to secure the fastest lap bonus points. Within 0.7s of Evans during the first half of the race, the encounter was neutralised behind the safety car at the mid race point following a hefty shunt at St Devote for Artem Markelov.

The race resumed at the end of lap 16, and Jolyon continued to hold seventh just behind Evans for the remainder of the race to take two more points, and was part of a long train of cars formed behind fourth placed finisher Johnny Cecotto who was lapping two seconds slower than the leaders. Jolyon's team mate Stephane Richelmi claimed the win from reverse grid pole to make it two victories this weekend for the DAMS team, who also strengthened their position at the top of the Teams' Championship.

Speaking after the race, Jolyon commented: "It was a difficult race because we had to start on used tyres after yesterday. The pace wasn't bad again and I was on the back of the train for fourth place but it was difficult to overtake. Still it has been an awesome weekend and I can head into the next break full of confidence about the rest of the season."

Monaco GP2 Sprint Race result:

1. S Richelmi, DAMS, 30 laps
2. S Canamasas, Trident, +2.1s
3. R Haryanto, Caterham, +8.2s
4. J Cecotto, Trident, +25.3s
5. A Pic, Campos, +25.7s
6. M Evans, Russian Time, +25.9s
7. J Palmer, DAMS, +26.5s
8. A Quaife-Hobbs, Rapax, +26.9s
9. S Coletti, Racing Engineering, +28.4s
10. C Daly, Venezuela GP Lazarus, +28.7s

Jolyon is next back in action on 20-22 June at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. For more information visit Jolyon's official website www.jolyonpalmer.com.