Renault’s Jolyon Palmer has been pleased to finally have a more reliable RS16 car to drive having had his first two days of testing disrupted last week at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Despite having a gearbox problem in the morning, the Briton set a lap time of 1:26.224 to go tenth fastest in a day of set-up work and race simulations which saw him complete 98 laps.
At the end of the session, Palmer was relieved to finally see the progress of the car: “I watched Kevin [Magnussen] notch-up so many laps over the past few days that when my day didn’t start to plan I was thinking ‘why me?!’ Once we sorted the gearbox problem it was great to complete a race simulation without issues.
“The car feels good and it was annoying to miss out on 100 laps for the day by a mere two laps! I think the team has made good progress with the car since we arrived here last week. I’m looking forward to some lower fuel runs as well as a full programme tomorrow.”
Bob Bell, the team’s Chief Technical Officer, was pleased on how the team bounced back from the earlier gearbox problem: “We set out to have a good day with Jolyon after the frustrations he experienced losing time behind the wheel last week. It didn’t go to plan in the morning with a gearbox issue which means he missed out on the lower fuel simulations we had planned.
“The crew in the garage did a great job to get the car back in action for the afternoon, enabling a full race distance to be completed, resulting in a strong recovery after a frustrating start.”
Palmer continues in the car for tomorrow’s final day of testing, two weeks before the first session of the new Formula One season.
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