Renault: Jolyon Palmer scores his first points of the season
Despite a frustrating race marked by Nico Hülkenberg's retirement, the Renault team leaves Singapore with a reason for satisfaction: Joylon Palmer's first points of the season.
For a long time in the Top 4, just a short distance from a podium that seems to elude him, Nico Hülkenberg carried all of Renault’s hopes to score big points on Sunday. That was without accounting for a mechanical problem that prematurely ended his race.
A missed opportunity
Until his air pressure problem during the last safety car period, Nico Hülkenberg was on track for a good result in Singapore: « It’s a really disappointing race. You work very hard all weekend to finally see these things happen… it’s not great but it’s motorsport and a team sport,” the German tried to explain after his retirement.
« Unfortunately, we had a technical problem with the engine and we had to retire… » concluded Hülkenberg.
Having to retire Nico. Absolutely gutted. What a drive from our Hulk 🙌. #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/FvNcGMhbAb
— Renault Sport F1 (@RenaultSportF1) 17 septembre 2017
Palmer finally wakes up!
Author of a solid race, Jolyon Palmer reached the Top 10 in a race for the first time this season. With this beautiful 6th place, opportunistic but achieved without making any mistakes, the Briton opens his account in the world driver’s championship: « I’m very happy. It took a while to come, but this time everything went right. It was a tricky race with that dramatic start and quite heavy rain, but these circumstances allowed us to score points. We had a good strategy, good pit stops, and the car was great in wet conditions. The next race should be even better. » confided Palmer with a smile on his face.
