Moroccon reversal for Comma’s young standard bearer.

12/05/2010

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 After a near perfect start to the 2010 Formula Two season with a win and second place in the first two races at Silverstone, Jolyon Palmer experienced what can only be described as a 'character building' set-back to his Comma sponsored championship aspirations in Marrakech during the first weekend of May.  

19 year old Jolyon produced a stunning effort during the opening qualifying session to secure second place on the grid for the weekend's first race, his third successive front row starting performance. But heartbreak was to follow. While running in a commanding second place to pole-sitter and fellow Brit, Dean Stoneman, Jolyon's engine stopped with less than three laps to go, leaving him to rue the loss of a certain 18 championship points. The set back meant that Jolyon could only qualify ninth on the grid for race two, but he then showed his class and fighting spirit with a fantastic display of attacking driving on Sunday afternoon to claim an eventual fifth place and 10 precious championship points at the finish. With fourteen of the eighteen races still to go, the Marrakech outcome leaves Jolyon lying third in the table behind Stoneman, with Austria's Philipp Eng - the only two-time winner so far - heading the standings.

Race two also produced an unbelievably spectacular moment when Ricardo Teixeira's cars was launched into near-earth orbit while scrapping for position on the opening lap. The incident - which subsequently became one of the most viewed video clips on YouTube - was captured by Eurosport TV and the live action camera onboard Paul Rees's car. (View the footage at www.formulatwo.com). Happily, after returning to earth, Teixeira walked away totally unscathed, a telling endorsement of the amazing survivability built into the latest Williams JPH1B Formula Two race car.      

Formula Two now heads to Italy and the iconic Monza track, one of international motor racing's great surviving temples where the cars run at full throttle for over 70% of the lap. It's a circuit that echoes with history and stirs the blood and passion of every true racing enthusiast. And for a racing driver?  Well, to win at Monza is truly to have arrived.

So, as they would say in Italy, "Forza Jolyon!"