Jolyon Palmer showed good pace throughout the GP2 Series weekend at Silverstone in support of the British Grand Prix, but a 30 second penalty prevented him from scoring a top ten result in the feature race.
The 20-year-old Arden International driver scored his best qualifying result yet on Friday when he secured 11th on the grid in a rain-disrupted session.
In the Saturday afternoon feature race he crossed the line in tenth, but was handed a 30 second penalty for contact with Esteban Gutierrez which dropped him to 21st in the final classification.
He gained several positions in the sprint race on Sunday morning to come home in 16th.
“Race one was interesting,” he said. “It started wet and I stayed in 11th but then as it dried out, we stayed out for a lap or two too long and lost a place. Then I had good initial pace on slicks and I caught and passed some people including Esteban Gutierrez with a bit of contact. I felt it was 50/50 because he turned in on me while I was alongside.
“I made a good start to race two, moving up a couple of positions and I had decent race pace. My rear tyres started to go off slightly towards the end though meaning it was hard to make up further places, but 16th from 20th is not bad. It was always going to be tough after Saturday's penalty.
“There have been lots of positives this weekend, though, and I hope to convert those into a points finish at the Nürburgring.”