Jolyon Palmer has qualified in 15th position for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, progressing to the Q2 session and setting a 1m41.820s time at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05
Qualifying: P15, 1:41.820
FP3: P12, 1:42.616

Jolyon said: “I’m really happy with how we’ve been going; I’ve been in Q2 at every race I’ve qualified for since the Malaysian Grand Prix now, so it’s been a strong run including today. Yas Marina isn’t the easiest of tracks for us, but I did a really good lap in Q1 and managed to beat [Pascal] Wehrlein in Q2, so 15th is probably as good as it can get.

“I think our race pace is a bit stronger, so we should be able to move forward tomorrow. If something kicks off at the start and we make up some places, then we have the pace to stay up there.”

Alan Permane, Renault Sport Formula One Team Trackside Operations Director added: “Today was a similar story to what we’ve seen at a number of recent races; we didn’t quite get the optimum out of the car, but this didn’t impact greatly on our grid position. Jolyon made a small mistake on his second Q2 run, however a perfect lap would only have put him nearer to the car ahead, not in front of it.

“The data points to a two-stop strategy as the norm, with the majority of racing taking place on Pirelli’s soft-compound tyre. There’s still a bit of movement around those two aspects, and we have seen in the past that track position can be important here as the car in front can be difficult to pass.”