Renault Sport Formula One Team's Jolyon Palmer drove a measured Emirates Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka today. The team opted for a one-stop tyre strategy for the 53-lap race, with Jolyon fighting in the middle of the pack throughout and taking the chequered flag in P12. Jolyon gained four places from his starting position.

Jolyon said: "Tenth last week, twelfth this week, but this week everyone finished the race! We had a lot of luck last week and I think today was actually a stronger performance. We beat everyone that we could this afternoon. I’m pleased with how we went, the strategy, the pace, performance… Everything was good."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal, said: "It was a good weekend for us in terms of performance, with our best Free Practice 3 to-date where we were in the top ten. Qualifying, however, was a bit disappointing. Of course Jolyon got into Q2, but I think that we could have done better overall on Saturday afternoon. Our race pace was similar again to what we had seen in FP3; we fought with Williams in terms of pace until the end of the race and we were in front of McLaren and Toro Rosso. Today’s race confirmed that we have gone a step forward in pure performance, despite a tricky qualifying session on Saturday. Overall the weekend has been encouraging and both drivers did a solid job in the race with a strategy that worked well for the team."

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05:
Started P16, finished P12