Renault: The car feels good

Jolyon Palmer fell just short of 100 laps on his first day behind the wheel of the Renault Sport Formula One Team R.S.16 in the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya. Jolyon completed 98 laps with a best time of 1min 26.224secs.

Fast Facts:

Jolyon Palmer: “I watched Kevin 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 getting some lower fuel runs as well as a full programme tomorrow.”

Bob Bell, Chief Technical Officer: “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.”