Jolyon Palmer was overjoyed to compete in a Formula 1 practice session in front of his home fans at Silverstone after finishing fourteenth fastest in first practice for the Lotus F1 Team on Friday.
The Briton replaced Romain Grosjean for the session, and felt happy with his session despite losing a little bit of direction with set-up after trying something different after a good first run, insisting it was a ‘special’ moment to drive an F1 car around the circuit after attending so many British Grand Prix in the past.
“The session started off well for me,” reflected Palmer. “The first run was clean and then we tried something different on the set-up but it didn’t work, so the car was a real handful to drive after the first half an hour. The baseline is not bad but we need to revert back on the changes so we have some work to do.
“From my perspective, I am quite happy with how I did and from the team’s perspective, it wasn’t the most encouraging but at least we know the right direction to go in.
“I was very happy to drive in front of my home crowd. It was really special to be driving a Formula One car on a nice, sunny day at Silverstone. I’ve been coming here to see the British Grand Prix since I was about three, so to drive an F1 car here on a Grand Prix weekend is pretty incredible.”
