Jolyon Palmer will start from fourth place on the grid for tomorrow's GP2 Feature Race at Sochi after looking on course to take another pole position before being blocked by a slower car on his final flying lap.

Palmer, who was the clear pace-setter in practice this morning on the new Russian track, was fastest mid-way through the qualifying session after setting a lap time of 1m45.878s, before pitting for fresh tyres.

The 23-year-old returned to the track with eight minutes remaining and improved his time by a tenth-of-a-second to move into second after other runners had improved their times.

On his final run, Palmer was two-tenths up on his previous best time and on course to take pole position before he was baulked on the final corner of his final lap by the MP Motorsport car of Daniel de Jong, leaving the visibly furious Briton with fourth on the grid.

Palmer's nearest championship rival Felipe Nasr could only manage 10th after a scrappy qualifying session, but will start 13th after being penalised for impeding Stefano Coletti.

The GP2 Feature Race starts at 1.40pm UK time tomorrow (Saturday).

Palmer commented: "I'm disappointed to line up fourth because the car felt good and pole was definitely in there. On my best lap I was blocked by De Jong in the last two corners which cost me pole, so that is extremely frustrating.

"Still, we have shown very good pace today and I'm sure we can fight for the win tomorrow."

Sochi GP2 Qualifying result:

1. S Vandoorne, ART GP, 1m45.402s
2. A Pic, Campos, +0.000s
3. T Izawa, ART GP, +0.273s
4. J Palmer, DAMS, +0.283s
5. R Marciello, Racing Engineering, +0.370s
6. M Evans, Russian Time, +0.411s
7. K Sato, Campos, +0.700s
8. S Coletti, Racing Engineering, +0.718s
9. A Negrao, Arden, +0.771s
10. F Nasr, Carlin, +0.808s