Renault’s Jolyon Palmer has described his Spanish Grand Prix performance as the best of his fledgling F1 career.
Albeit finishing outside the points in 13th place, the Englishman beat his teammate Kevin Magnussen, despite enduring a difficult weekend in the lead-up to Sunday’s race.
His preparation for race day was heavily compromised by a lack of Friday running. Renault Reserve Driver Esteban Ocon filled Palmer’s seat in FP1, while a tyre failure in FP2 severely limited his afternoon running.
As a result, Palmer was unable to progress out of the first part of qualifying. Starting the race in 17th, it was always going to be a busy afternoon with overtaking notoriously challenging in Spain and relatively high levels of tyre degradation.
“I think that was probably the best race I’ve done in terms of pace and performance,” Palmer stated. “The car was feeling okay, we were battling tyre degradation a bit but it was manageable.
“It’s a bit disappointing not to finish in the points but for myself, I’m happy. More performance should be coming from the upgrades we have in store so I’m looking forward to Monaco.”
Palmer will be confident of building upon his promising Sunday in Spain. He claimed victory on the streets of Monaco – the next stop on F1’s world tour – in the GP2 Feature Race, en route to his title success in 2014.
A victory for Palmer and Renault at Monaco in a fortnight will, however, come in the form of a points haul. Despite a stronger performance in Spain, Palmer is still waiting for his maiden points scoring finish.
