Jolyon Palmer struggled to follow other cars at the United States Grand Prix which meant he couldn’t easily climb up the grid.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver started the Grand Prix in fifteenth and with a two-stop strategy was able to finish in thirteenth. After a five second penalty was added to Kevin Magnussen‘s race time, Palmer finished behind his team-mate.
Much of the afternoon was spent with Palmer and Magnussen locked together in battle, the Briton behind the Dane before the latter switched to a three-stop strategy. The Brit feels he could have tried to lunge at Magnussen but believes this wouldn’t have been a clever thing to do between team-mates, and latter saw the Dane pass him on much fresher Supersoft tyres.
“I had a slow start and unfortunately lost a few places that allowed Kevin to pass me,” said Palmer. “Which then meant I was on his gearbox for a good two-thirds of the race.
“We were really struggling to follow other cars and although I was quicker, I couldn’t get close enough to pass which was so frustrating. I could have tried to lunge but that’s not a clever thing to do between team-mates. In the end, I overheated my tyres trying to overtake and fell back a little bit.”
