Renault Sport Formula One Team’s Jolyon Palmer made a strong start from 19th on the grid in today’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, making four positions on the first lap, but the 26-year-old Brit subsequently suffered an intermittent brake issue which led to his retirement from the race on lap 15.

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.17-01
Started P19, DNF (brake issue)

Jolyon said: “My race was going well. I made places at the start despite being on the hardest tyre, my pace was pretty reasonable and I could see Nico [Hülkenberg] and Esteban [Ocon] ahead of me.

“Unfortunately, my brakes stuck on at Turn 14. We hoped it was just a glitch, but it happened again so we had no alternative other than to retire. It’s not been the start I wanted to my season, so we’ll put it down to experience and look forward to China.”

Cyril Abiteboul, Renault Sport Formula One Team Managing Director, added: “The first grand prix of the season under these new regulations has delivered several lessons. Our race result highlights that we were not as well-prepared as our opposition and our lack of mileage and preparation – both during pre-season testing and this weekend – meant we suffered today.

“We have learnt that in this new Formula 1 era, everything needs to be perfectly executed as it is very difficult to gain track position. We needed to be stronger at the start, in our execution of our strategy, in our pit-stops and with our car set-up and balance.

“Although there were very few laps of clean air to demonstrate it, we feel that our car-engine-driver combination allows us to be in the group that we were targeting to race against. At every race, we should be in a position to fight for Q3 on Saturday and points on Sunday. Looking forward, our first priority for Shanghai is to improve our reliability – and from there we should be in a stronger position.”