Jolyon Palmer completed his first laps of the Baku City Circuit today (17 June), as he racked up the miles in practice for this weekend’s European Grand Prix – the first to be held in Azerbaijan. 

With the dramatic and challenging street circuit being new to all competitors, putting laps on the board was very much the order of the day, and the young British F1 rookie tallied no fewer than 60 tours over the course of the two 90-minute sessions.

It was a productive and trouble-free opening day for Jolyon as he got to grips with the track, alternating between Pirelli’s medium, soft and super-soft rubber compounds on his Renault Sport Formula One Team R.S.16 to assess tyre performance.

Grip levels improved significantly in the cooler conditions of FP2, enabling the 25-year-old Southwater racer to reduce his lap times by more than three seconds and leaving Jolyon and the team with plenty of data to analyse overnight, before FP3 at 2pm on Saturday (11am UK time) and qualifying at 5pm (2pm UK time).

“It was pretty slippery in FP1 and I think most drivers had a ‘moment’ at some point over the two sessions today,” reflected the former GP2 Series Champion. “We made good progress with understanding the track and bringing improvements to the car.

“I certainly appreciated the extra grip we found on the super-soft runs, but we’re still looking for a better balance in the high-speed corners, something we can hopefully find in the set-up before qualifying.”