Jolyon Palmer and Team Young Stars were knocked out at the quarter-final stage of this evening's (Friday) Race of Champions Nations Cup, despite a strong performance against the England 1 squad at London's former Olympic Stadium.

Jolyon and his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein took on British Touring Car legends Andy Priaulx and Jason Plato, with Guernsey-based Priaulx facing off against 2015 DTM Champion Wehrlein in the first round of the best-of-three contest. Racing Ariel Atoms, Priaulx made the better start but, in a very tight contest, he came across the line just 0.235s ahead of Wehrlein after the opening lap. The German was unable to close the gap on the second tour and Priaulx put the England 1 team one-nil up.

That meant that Jolyon had to beat Jason Plato to extend the quarter-final into a deciding round, with the winning team slated to face the other England squad in the Nations Cup comprising Blancpain Champion Alex Buncombe and 2009 Formula One World Champion Jenson Button. In the Radical SR3 RSX machines, Jolyon made a great getaway and attacked the pursuit-style course hard to lead by half-a-second after the first of two laps. Plato reduced the gap on the second circuit but Jolyon managed his advantage to level the contest at one-all.

The two winners of the first rounds, Priaulx and Jolyon, then jumped in the KTM X-bow car to decide which team would progress to the semi-final. After an even opening few corners, Priaulx eked out an advantage to move ahead of Jolyon after the first lap. The Lotus F1 Team driver closed the gap to Priaulx on the final tour but fell just short of overhauling his advantage as the chequered flag flew, meaning that Jolyon and Team Young Stars were eliminated despite a strong performance.

Jolyon said: "I am a bit disappointed not to have gone further. It was very close between me and Andy Priaulx. I had the beating of Jason in the first match but Andy beat me and that's two Touring Car guys who are very experienced. It was all good fun though and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

"It was nice to have a bit of a run around though as some drivers were knocked out after just one race. It is a shame that I had a puncture against Romain (in the first round) as that was looking quite tasty, but it is really tight here and anything can happen really. I'm sure it is going to be great tomorrow."

Jolyon will take part in tomorrow's (Saturday) individual Race of Champions competition, which pits 20 of the world's best drivers against each other to find the 'Champion of Champions'. 

You can follow Jolyon's progress in the Race of Champions on Sky Sports F1 and www.autosport.com tomorrow.