Jolyon Palmer completed his third consecutive Friday morning practice session for his Lotus F1 Team employers at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain, and felt it was his best performance so far since taking the role of test and reserve driver with the team for 2015.
The 2014 GP2 Series Champion completed twenty-one untroubled laps of the Spanish circuit, and set a best time of 1m29.676s, which was more than six tenths of a second quicker than regular driver Pastor Maldonado, although the Venezuelan was restricted to only seven laps of his own when a gearbox issue ended his session early.
“It was probably my best FP1 so far from a driving perspective,” reflected Palmer. “It was helpful knowing the track well and I could push early on but there wasn’t a lot of grip with it being the first session of the weekend.
“It was quite windy as well but I got down to a good pace and I was in a nice rhythm. I’m certainly comfortable in the car and improving every time I get out on track so another valuable session for me and the team.”
Palmer is next in action with Lotus during the post-Barcelona test next week, driving the car all day on Wednesday 13 May.
