Jolyon Palmer was left to rue an early slow puncture that ultimately forced him to conserve his tyres for longer stints than were initially planned, with the Briton finishing the Singapore Grand Prix down in fifteenth on Sunday.
The Renault Sport F1 driver found himself compromised by running through debris at the start that gave him the slow puncture, with his lap eleven pit stop coming much earlier than he had planned it to, meaning for the rest of his evening he was in tyre conservation mode rather than attack mode.
“That was a tough race and we didn’t have any breaks come our way,” said Palmer. “I lost out with the shenanigans at the start and probably collected some debris as I had an early slow puncture too.
“We pitted pretty early and this meant we had to run for longer subsequent stints which meant nursing the tyres more than if we’d run the more balanced stint length planned. I lost a lot of time behind the Manors but it wasn’t possible to pass them on this track.”
Palmer pointed to the fact that team-mate Kevin Magnussen scored a point in tenth place, which gives him confidence he can break into the top ten himself this season.
“The positive from today is we’ve seen that there’s still scope to get points if everything goes your way; that’s what I’m gunning for in Sepang,” said Palmer.
