Jolyon Palmer endured a frustrating finish to the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps today (28 August), suffering from high tyre degradation and rising temperatures that restricted him to 15^th at the chequered flag after enjoying a competitive early run in seventh position.

A chaotic opening lap saw cars colliding and debris flying throughout the field, but from 13^th on the grid, Jolyon made an excellent start and raced hard whilst successfully steering clear of trouble to move immediately into the top ten on the soft-compound Pirelli tyres. More drama over the next few laps prompted a Virtual Safety Car period and elevated the young British F1 rookie to seventh as he led the Renault Sport Formula One Team’s challenge.

Jolyon was keeping pace with sixth-placed Romain Grosjean when the safety car was deployed following a hefty high-speed accident for team-mate Kevin Magnussen at the top of Eau Rouge. The Dane thankfully walked away from the wreckage of his R.S.16 before being escorted to a nearby hospital for checks after sustaining a small cut to his left ankle.

With the safety car closing the field right up, Jolyon pitted for another set of soft Pirelli rubber – leapfrogging Grosjean in the process courtesy of a lightning-quick stop from the Renault crew – before the red flags flew to allow the extensively damaged Eau Rouge barriers to be repaired, effectively granting those drivers who had not yet changed tyres a free pit-stop.

The action resumed with a single-file safety car re-start, but the 25-year-old Southwater racer struggled with tyre degradation and was soon instructed by the team to 'lift and coast' into corners as his front and rears were getting too hot. That resulted in him slipping down the order to 14^th, and following two subsequent pit-stops – for medium then super-soft rubber – Jolyon crossed the finish line in a disappointed 15^th position.

Jolyon Palmer, #30, R.S.16-02: Started P13, Finished P15

Jolyon said: “We had our best qualifying here and had a great start and ran in the top ten for a while. We could have had a strong race, but the safety car pulled a lot of people back into play. It’s a shame not to get a better result in the end, but this weekend has been better than we expected overall. I saw Kevin crash in my rear mirrors. It’s not nice to see because it’s a really, really fast part of the track. I’m glad he’s ok.”

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal of Renault Sport Formula One Team added: “Jolyon had a very good start and was racing very hard, but had some problems with tyre degradation that dropped him back down the order. It’s a shame as we had the strongest qualifying of the year and had shown that we had taken some steps forward with the car yet again. I hope we can keep the stronger form going at Monza and fully capitalise in the race there.”