It was yet another unfortunate race for Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver Jolyon Palmer at this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, after the Brit was taken out on the very first lap during an incident with Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean.
“I had a decent-enough start then heading down to Turn Two there was a Sauber on my outside then Romain made a very ambitious move over the kerbs on the inside from behind.
“There was no space for me to go because of the Sauber, so maybe Romain wasn’t aware of that, but he kept it in, hit me, then we were both out of the race.
“That was a shame for both of us really. I feel for my crew this weekend as they’ve worked so hard on the car, then we had such a short race.
“Now it’s reset, reload and look to Barcelona.”
Though the majority of blame can be put at Grosjean’s door for this weekend’s incident, with Palmer given nowhere to go to avoid a collision with the Frenchman, the 26-year-old still needs to really step up his efforts, to avoid being thoroughly outclassed by new team-mate Nico Hulkenberg this year.
The German has now finished in the points in Sochi as well as last time out in Bahrain, and has easily taken the upper hand over the Brit in qualifying. Palmer meanwhile is yet to score, and has only once made it into the top ten on a Saturday.
The Enstone based team will be bringing updates to the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks’ time, and that will be Palmer’s cue to start making some serious headway, and prove the many doubters that he has what it takes to be in F1.
