Jolyon Palmer won the feature race of the GP2 series in Hungary yesterday after a gamble on tyres paid off handsomely.
As they say fortune favours the brave and that is exactly what Palmer and his team were as they stayed out longer than their rivals on medium tyres and then in the second half of the race he drove aggressively to the finish.
It meant that he beat Marcus Ericsson and the impressive Felipe Nasr into second and third respectively to make it a great day for Brits, with Lewis Hamilton taking pole position in the Formula One qualifying session shortly before the feature race of GP2 took to the track.
Palmer who is the son of Brands Hatch owner Jonathan Palmer, made a lightening quick getaway going from seventh on the grid to third place at the start.
He and Ericsson would battle for position right the way through the pit stops and on towards the chequered flag, in some fantastic wheel to wheel racing. Palmer who had the better tyres would eventually finish the race 15 seconds ahead of his Carlin teammate.
Tonbridge’s Adrian Quaife-Hobbs finished down in 18th place for MP Motorsport and will be looking for better fortunes in tomorrow’s feature race.
Speaking after the race win, Palmer said: “Thanks! Yes, I was really happy because it’s the summer break after this and I’ve had a couple of bad rounds and well Nuburgring was really poor for me and Silverstone Sprint Race was pretty unlucky.
“I lost a lot of points and it was good to get a little bit of a momentum and he race was really good. Everything worked out perfectly. The strategy was good. The pit stop was good. And then the race pace was very good as well so it’s the perfect timing to win because it gives us the confidence and I’m very happy for the team.”
Budapest – Feature Race
| Driver | Team | |
| 1. | Jolyon Palmer | Carlin |
| 2. | Marcus Ericsson | DAMS |
| 3. | Felipe Nasr | Carlin |
| 4. | Fabio Leimer | Racing Engineering |
| 5. | Stéphane Richelmi | DAMS |
| 6. | Simon Trummer | Rapax |
| 7. | Mitch Evans | Arden International |
| 8. | Nathanaël Berthon | Trident Racing |
| 9. | James Calado | ART Grand Prix |
| 10. | Sam Bird | RUSSIAN TIME |
| 11. | Rio Haryanto | Barwa Addax Team |
| 12. | Daniel De Jong | MP Motorsport |
| 13. | Alexander Rossi | EQ8 Caterham Racing |
| 14. | Dani Clos | MP Motorsport |
| 15. | Julian Leal | Racing Engineering |
| 16. | Stefano Coletti | Rapax |
| 17. | Vittorio Ghirelli | Venezuela GP Lazarus |
| 18. | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | Hilmer Motorsport |
| 19. | Ricardo Teixeira | Trident Racing |
| 20. | Tom Dillmann | RUSSIAN TIME |
| 21. | Johnny Cecotto | Arden International |