Palmer: "I just need to shake off the bad luck"

Jolyon Palmer has said he just needs less bad luck to finally get his first points of the season. He has scored no points this season, and only has one solitary point in his entire career. The British driver has come under fire for underperforming this season compared to now veteran teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, routinely being a long way off in qualifying, although he has had his share of bad luck which would have otherwise seen him score points.

Perhaps the most frustrating example of this happened in Spa, he  looked quicker than his teammate in qualifying for the first time this season, but could not compete in Q3 because his gearbox broke, meaning he could not compete for higher on the grid than 10th place, when in Q2 he set a lap good enough for 7th place, and then to add insult to injury was demoted 5 places for a grid penalty so started 14th.

He said reflecting on the first race weekend after the summer break: "It was a positive weekend with the car again looking competitive,If I had started seventh then I would have been in a position to score points, but down in fourteenth on the grid was hard.

“It’s positive, though, and I’m happy with the first race back, it would have been nice to get points but it has been a better weekend than in previous weeks. We need the same again in the next few races; it will happen, I just need to shake off the bad luck. Things are looking much better."

Sam Gale