Renault Sport Formula One Team driver Jolyon Palmer will line up on the tenth row of the grid for this weekend’s Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix (2 October).
The R.S.16 showed improved relative performance in qualifying at the Sepang International Circuit, but the young British F1 rookie was unable to extract the maximum from his crucial lap today and wound up 19th. Tomorrow, Jolyon will be focused on achieving a points-scoring finish.
Jolyon said: “I’ll be frank; my lap was pretty far from what it should have been. I made the wrong call on set-up between my runs, and the lap just didn’t come together. This was particularly frustrating as the pace has looked promising all weekend and there’s definitely better possible from the car here. Tomorrow, I’ll be pushing all the way to make amends, especially as this is a track where moving up the order is possible.”
Alan Permane, Renault Sport Formula One Team Trackside Operations Director added: “It was an encouraging session in terms of the pace potential from the car, but Jolyon struggled to get his lap together in Q1 and that was a shame for him as he’s looked strong here for the rest of the weekend.
“We have 56 laps tomorrow, and our long run pace should prove to be advantageous. The three tyre compounds offer many strategy options on this new track surface, which works the tyres very differently from before. We accumulated a lot of data yesterday and today, so it will be interesting to see how the race plays out. We’re most certainly looking to move forward and up the order and points are definitely the target.”
Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-05
Free practice 3: P14, 1:36.604
Qualifying: P19, 1:35.999
My lap was pretty far from what it should have been. There’s definitely better possible from the car here, so tomorrow, I’ll be pushing all the way to make amends, especially as this is a track where moving up the order is possible. Jolyon Palmer, Renault Sport Formula One Team Driver