More Friday woe for Renault driver
Tuesday 1 August 2017 21:44, UK
Jolyon Palmer's season hit another low at the Hungarian GP on Friday as he crashed heavily at the final corner during Practice Two.
The Briton, who was in desperate need of a clean weekend as scrutiny over his future increases, lost control at the right-hander and span into the barriers, causing significant damage to the rear of his Renault.
The incident came after the 26-year-old had had his front wing obliterated after running wide over the kerbs at Turn Four in Practice One, which brought that session to a premature end.
It is the fifth time this season that Palmer has ended a session with his car in the wall. He previously crashed in both Practice Two and Qualifying at the Australian GP, in Qualifying at the Russian GP and in Practice Two at the Azerbaijan GP.
The Renault driver suggested something had been amiss with his car's set-up all the way through Practice Two following repairs to his car in the break.
"Something wasn't working since the beginning of the session, we don't know what still," he said.
"It was looking to do that many times and we couldn't see what, but it just like rallycross out there. In the end… honestly, it felt like something broke, I think they are looking at it at the moment because it just snapped and I had zero chance to catch it."
Palmer has yet to score a point this season and has been regularly out-performed by team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who has scored all 26 of Renault's points so far.
After posting the 10th quickest time in Practice One, Palmer could only manage a 1:21.175 in the afternoon to leave him 16th in the timesheet.
"I think it's a shame because I was going very well," he added. "We still finished 10th in P1. The balance was good, I was very happy with the car.
"The car been put together in a different spec and folded back on, and tried to balance it with a bit of an unknown.
"We don't really know what was the issue at the moment, but we could clearly see that there's a problem with the rear. That I'm sure came from the run wide in P1."
With both cars running upgraded aero packages this weekend, Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul had made clear in the build-up to this race that it was "critical" they achieve a double-points finish in Hungary.
Adding to the scrutiny around Palmer, Robert Kubica will drive for Renault on Wednesday in the second in-season test in Budapest as he steps up his remarkable comeback to Formula 1.
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