Both Renault drivers hoping to move forward after a slightly disappointing qualifying session for the Malaysia Grad Prix.
Despite showing a relative improved performance over their nearest competition, it was still a tough day for Renault. Kevin Magnussen did manage to make it to Q2, however errors from Jolyon Palmer left him out in Q1 and not very happy with his own performance despite having good performance prior to qualifying.
With Magnussen making it to Q2 it certainly was a more successful session for the Dane’s side of the garage, especially after the dramatic events of FP1 in where a fuel breather pipe failure led to a fuel leak that set the car on fire.
Magnussen said: “It’s a very good result for us in qualifying; P14 is much better than usual in terms of setting us up for scoring some points in the race. But it’s an ambivalent result as I felt so close to Q3 that I couldn’t resist giving it everything I’ve got on my final run; I locked up in turn 1 and lost the lap. I didn’t improve after that so it’s unfortunate.
“From P14, not a lot has to happen in the top ten for us to get points, which is always the aim. Let’s see tomorrow, hopefully our race pace is as good as qualifying today. You never really know how it will go here, so fingers crossed!”
Palmer has a lot of work to do to claim the team’s target of a points finish. Starting from 19th place behind both Saubers it could mean a long afternoon for ahead starting from that far back.
Palmer said: “I’ll be frank; my lap was pretty far from what it should have been. I made the wrong call on set-up between my runs and the lap just didn’t come together. This was particularly frustrating as the pace has looked promising all weekend and there’s definitely better possible from the car here.
“Tomorrow I’ll be pushing all the way to make amends especially as this is a track where moving up the order is possible.”
