Newly crowned GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer was unable to follow up his sensational victory of yesterday in today's Sprint Race at Sochi, which was spoiled when Raffaele Marciello made contact with his car on the first lap.

Palmer made a good start from eighth place on the grid and was up to sixth through the first corner, but under braking for turn two he was hit by Marciello. This knocked Palmer to the tail of the field and put Marciello under investigation for the incident.

Palmer recovered to finish 10th, pulling off some impressive late outbraking manoeuvres and passing five cars in the final two laps.

Palmer had been forced to follow ART driver Takuya Izawa in the early stages, eventually passing the Japanese driver on lap nine. He passed another two cars on lap 10 to move into 18th before moving past Tio Ellinas on lap 11.

The safety car was deployed on lap 17 when Marciello spun into the barriers, with Jolyon up to 15th by now. When the race resumed with two laps remaining, Jolyon moved further up the field with characteristically decisive overtaking moves to finish 10th after an exciting final two tours.

Palmer commented: "I got a great start but then was hit into a spin at turn one which dropped me to the back and I picked up some damage. From then on it was a long slog trying to get back up the order, in the end I finished 10th after a great last couple of laps which was a nice salvage. It's a shame to end my points scoring run but there was nothing I could do about someone braking too late and hitting me at the start."

Sochi GP2 Sprint Race result:

1. M Sorensen, MP Motorsport, 21 laps
2. S Vandoorne, ART GP, +1.3s
3. F Nasr, Carlin, +1.9s
4. M Evans, Russian Time, +3.2s
5. A Pic, Campos, +4.1s
6. A Negrao, Arden, +5.8s
7. K Sato, Campos, +7.1s
8. S Coletti, Racing Engineering, +9.0s
9. N Berthon, Venezuela, +11.0s
10. J Palmer, DAMS, +11.5s