Autosportfoto

F1 Hungarian GP: Palmer ‘gutted’ as inexplicable spin scuppers first points

Jolyon Palmer says he doesn't understand why he suffered a spin during the Hungarian Grand Prix as he saw the prospect of his first points in F1 scuppered after the 'best drive of my career'

On a weekend of missed opportunities, Palmer started down in 17th place after a late red flag prevented him from making the most of much improved single lap pace in the Renault but in race conditions he would make strong progress nonetheless.

Getting as high as ninth at one stage as he went long on the first stint, Palmer was running 10th and in the hunt for long awaited points when he spun at Turn 4 on lap 49 of 70. Dropping him to 13th, though he would regain 12th for his best result of the year, the Briton was left baffled by the error.

"I'm gutted as my first points in Formula 1 were there for the taking. The car was good and I was driving well within myself in P10. I turned in the same as normal at turn four - I wasn't hanging everything out and I was looking after the tyres - but for some reason I lost the car in a massive snap.

"I need to look at everything with my engineers to see if there is anything we could have done to prevent it. I was running tenth, we had completed all our pit stops, we had good pace relative to those ahead and behind so it looks like we've made a real step forward this weekend.

"It was the best drive of my career today and just one small spin took away those points. I'm gutted but I'll be fighting to get in the same position or better in Hockenheim."

Zdroj: crash.net