Renault Sport Formula One Team opened the Formula 1 Gran Premio de México on Friday, with Jolyon Palmer ending the day with the sixteenth fastest time.

The Briton completed 79 laps at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodrígue, running Pirelli’s medium compound tyres in the morning session, before switching to the soft and super soft compounds in the afternoon.

Jolyon said: "That was a reasonable Friday for us however we still need to work on the balance of the car as it isn’t where I want it. The track is certainly slippery. We saw the grip improve over the sessions today and we’d certainly expect it to improve further tomorrow and on Sunday. I would have liked to have felt a little happier at the end of the day today, so we’ve got some work to do."

Nick Chester, Technical Director, said: "From a technical perspective it was a solid day for us: we completed our programme, we ran with the HALO for the first time, we saw no problems with the cars and both drivers were reasonably happy. Jolyon still isn’t 100% happy with the balance on his car so there’s a little work to be done there. Now our focus is working out how to get the maximum from the tyres including extending the super soft compound’s performance life. We saw a lot of track surface improvement over the course of the day and we expect that to continue tomorrow and beyond."

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05
Free practice 1: P21, 1:24.097, 35 laps
Free practice 2: P16, 1:21.785, 44 laps