Jolyon Palmer felt he could have better his sixteenth place on the grid for the Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace after a trio of lock-ups on his final Q2 run cost him valuable time and caused him to run wide late in the lap.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver, who was confirmed by the team to be racing for them again in 2017 earlier this weekend, had finished inside the top ten during final practice on Saturday morning, and was hoping to be at least challenging for an appearance in Q3, which would have been his and Renault’s first of the season had it happened.
Instead, Palmer will need to fight through from a much lower position than he would have liked in order to challenge for points, but will push to the limit regardless of the conditions that drivers will face on race day.
“I’m pleased with reaching Q2 again today even though I wish we could be a bit higher on the grid for the race,” said Palmer. “I had a couple of lock-ups during my last run and had no rubber left on my front right, which is why I ran wide.
“It is a shame as FP3 this morning was really good and we could have done better still this afternoon; I wanted a little bit more!
“Nonetheless tomorrow is race day, we will have to see what the weather conditions are first and then we will be pushing to the limit as always.”
