Jolyon Palmer dominated the GP2 Sprint Race at Monza, Italy, today to significantly extend his championship advantage with just four races in the season remaining. Palmer's victory completed a brilliant weekend-turnaround, after a technical error by his team in Friday's qualifying session meant he'd had to start yesterday's Feature Race from last place on the grid.

Making a good start from pole position in today's race, Jolyon held the lead after the opening lap, but his advantage was soon negated by an early safety car period caused by two first-lap collisions further down the field. When the race resumed at the end of lap six, after a lengthy period to clear debris from the track, Jolyon made a good restart to keep the lead.

Initially Palmer led from team-mate Stephane Richelmi, until Stefano Coletti passed Richelmi at the mid-race point. Coletti began to close down the gap to Palmer, but was unable to get close enough to consider making a move, Palmer's strong pace enabling him to take the win by 1.5s.

Jolyon's third victory of the season, and poor results today for championship rivals Felipe Nasr and Stoffel Vandoorne, means he now holds a 41 point lead over Nasr, heading to the penultimate round at Sochi in Russia in five weeks' time.

Palmer commented: "It's been the most incredible weekend. The team made a bit of a silly mistake in qualifying but credit to DAMS because they've done the most unbelievable job. Since Friday night, when we found out we'd be starting from the back, we put our heads down and did a really good strategy and race. We knew we had to get into the top eight in yesterday's Feature Race, and we managed that. From there I managed to control the race today."

GP2 Monza Sprint Race result:

1. J Palmer, DAMS, 21 laps
2. S Coletti, Racing Engineering, +1.5s
3. S Richelmi, DAMS, +3.0s
4. M Sorensen, MP Motorsport, +4.8s
5. A Negrao, Arden, +7.9s
6. F Nasr, Carlin, +10.6s
7. A Pic, Campos, +11.2s
8. A Quaife-Hobbs, Rapax, +12.4s
9. D De Jong, MP Motorsport, +16.1s
10. D Abt, Hilmer, +20.3s