Jolyon Palmer had a disappointing opening day of practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with him ending Free Practice 2 in the barrier.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team driver flat spotted both sets of tyres during Free Practice 1, leading to him having no more tyres to put in a strong lap at the end of the session to see him progress up the time sheets. He set a time of 1:48.525s to finish in eighteenth ahead only of both of Sauber F1 Team drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson.
For the second session, Palmer was unable to finish after crashing in the exact same place that Sergio Perez did in the first practice session. Despite this incident, the Briton finished in sixteenth, with a time of 1:46.061s, improving on from his morning performance. Yellow flags played a massive part of the session, with drivers struggling with grip at the Baku City Circuit.
Palmer is hopeful that there’s not too much damage to the RS17 and that they’ll be able to get it where they want it for qualifying on Saturday.
“It was pretty slippery out there,” said Palmer. “We struggled to get grip from the tyres.
“The car was feeling better in FP2 but I was caught out at turn eight which ended my day early. We had made progress between FP1 and FP2 and there’s more we can make for tomorrow. Thankfully there’s not too much damage to the car, so we’ll look to get it where we want it to be for qualifying.”
