Jolyon Palmer endured a frustrating qualifying session around the Baku City Circuit ahead of tomorrow’s European Grand Prix, with the Renault Sport Formula One Team struggling for pace in the Azerbaijani capital.
Having run as high as ninth during the earlier FP3 session, Jolyon kept his head in Q1 as a number of his rivals came unstuck around the challenging street course, but with the clock counting down, both he and team-mate Kevin Magnussen found themselves in the drop zone as they evaluated different set-ups for the R.S.16.
Despite pushing hard, the young British F1 rookie saw his efforts to improve scuppered by yellow flags and a late error. Jolyon ultimately wound up just 0.046 seconds adrift of Magnussen in 22nd on the starting grid for Sunday’s 51-lap grand prix, when he will be eager to exploit every available opportunity to move through the field.
“The potential was there for a huge amount more, but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be today,” rued the 25-year-old Southwater racer. “I had a really, really good second run but it had to be aborted due to yellow flags. I then made a mistake on my final timed lap which lost me about half-a-second, and I had no tow over the start/finish line which is worth another few tenths. We could have been a lot quicker.
“We’ll try to race the guys around us tomorrow, but they also happen to be some of the quickest cars in a straight line. I enjoy the track, though, so the grand prix should be fun – and we can only go forward from where we’re starting!”
The lights will go out for Sunday’s European Grand Prix at 5pm local time (2pm BST).