Will Palmer left the Hungaroring still on top of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship standings despite his first non-score of the season, with the Briton struggling to eighteenth during Saturday’s opening race due to an intermittent electrical issue.
The problem caused him to drop to the rear of the field, nullifying an early charge through the field, but the R-ace GP ace had far better results during Sunday’s final two races, with a runners-up spot in race two and a fourth place in race three ensuring he left Hungary five-points clear of team-mate Robert Shwartzman.
Palmer praised his team for solving the problem with his car between Saturday’s opening race and Sunday morning’s second race, and he was happy to secure a good number of points during Sunday’s two races.
“We had a weekend of two halves at Budapest,” said Palmer. “For Saturday, we had an electrical problem causing me to lose throttle power, which meant I had to start towards the back for race one as I wasn’t able to do a representative lap-time in qualifying.
“I was recovering well in the race, up to twelfth and just outside the points after only five laps, but then the problem reoccurred, causing me to fall back so I was unable to score.
“The team did a great job overnight to resolve the issue and we had a much better Sunday. For race two, I started third and managed to gain a place on the first lap to move into second which I held until the end.
“In race three, starting from sixth, I gained a place at the start and then benefited from a penalty for a false start in front to finish fourth and gain good points for the championship.”
