Qualifying - US GP report: Renault F1

Jolyon Palmer was the lead Renault Sport Formula One Team driver in today’s qualifying for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas. Jolyon placed his R.S.16 in fifteenth position of the grid for tomorrow’s race after proceeding to Q2. Kevin Magnussen will start from 18th after falling foul to the first qualifying group elimination.

Kevin Magnussen

“We didn’t qualify where we expected today so that’s pretty frustrating. Yesterday the car felt pretty good so we didn’t make any set-up changes, yet the car felt very different out on track. Where we were strong yesterday we weren’t today so we definitely need to work out what’s going on. Hopefully we have decent pace in the race as it’s a circuit where you can overtake here, it’s not impossible to still get a reasonable result.”

Jolyon Palmer

“I think I got pretty much the most out of the car today, it’s my best qualifying for a while so I’m feeling good! I ended up doing just one good lap in Q1 and only one lap in Q2 but they were both pretty decent so I’m happy with 15th. For tomorrow, it’s difficult to tell exactly what our race pace will be like but I’m hoping we can have another good one.”

Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director

How was qualifying for the team?

Kevin didn’t get a clean lap in Q1 and P18 is quite a way from where we expected to be. Jolyon got through into Q2 thanks to his first flying Q1 lap which was a good effort, and with a perfect lap, better than P15 could have been possible.

What are the considerations for tomorrow’s race?

Unlike last year we don’t expect to encounter any rain. The super soft tyre doesn’t seem to be in favour here at COTA so soft and medium move to the fore for strategy. Overtaking is possible here and if we can tailor swift getaways from both drivers at the start all is not lost.