Jolyon Palmer had a relatively quiet but more importantly mistake-free Monaco Grand Prix, and he was rewarded with his best result of the season so far in eleventh, although he is still seeking his first points of the year.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team racer had started sixteenth after another first session elimination in qualifying, but kept his nose out of trouble to profit from the mistakes and retirements ahead of him to gain five places from his grid slot by the chequered flag.
Palmer feels the result will give him a boost to his confidence after a difficult start to 2017, especially compared to team-mate Nico Hülkenberg, who has scored all of Renault’s fourteen points so far this season.
“I’m happy with the race, the pace was pretty good and there were no mistakes,” said Palmer. “I enjoyed it; to hustle the car around Monaco for 78 laps was great and the tyres were hanging on, so you could really push the whole way through, which was stellar.
“It’s pretty hard to overtake here, so eleventh from P16 was it, and just one second away from getting the first point of the year! It felt much better than P11 and we can take this momentum to Canada.”
