Lotus F1 Team Third and Reserve Driver Jolyon Palmer missed out on a place in the last 16 stage ROC Champion of Champions by the narrowest of margins, following a nail-biting encounter with Alex Buncombe, this year's Blancpain GT Champion.

Jolyon missed out by just three-tenths-of-a-second in both heats of the encounter with his fellow Brit, both of which were contested in the lightweight KTM X-Bow track car on a bespoke track in London's former Olympic Stadium.

The track configuration required the two drivers to start facing in opposite directions and hunt each other down in the style of a velodrome cycling event. Jolyon was drawn on the inside of the two lanes for the first heat and he found himself six-tenths adrift of his opponent at the mid-way stage. Jolyon put in a mammoth performance in the second half of the encounter to half the gap, despite a massive slide, but he full just short at the flag.

The second encounter was a near repeat, with Jolyon this time starting from the outside lane, and falling just over half-a-second behind by the mid-way stage. One again, Jolyon was the quicker of the two drivers in the latter portion of the race, as he ultimately missed out by just three-tenths again.

Jolyon commented: "It was a little bit short and sweet. It's disappointing, but Alex drove well and I can be first back to the bar! It's been really good fun and I've enjoyed it here in my home city of London. It's been great and I think the atmosphere has been fantastic. Luckily we've had a lot of fans turn up, so that's made it really great for us - I think the stadium has been really good. It's a great event to be a part of and I hope to be back!"

Jolyon will return to action in Free Practice one for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as takes part in his final weekend as Lotus F1 Team's Third and Reserve Driver, ahead of his promotion to a race seat for 2016.