Palmer: ‘Difficult to point fingers at Renault’

Jolyon Palmer has said that he only has himself to blame after making a "simple mistake" in qualifying at the Russian Grand Prix.

Palmer crashed out in Q1 as he hit the kerb very hard at Turn 4, and the incident came out his engineers broke a curfew to fix an exhaust issue and scrambled to change to a new power unit within a couple of hours.

The Brit said, though, that he is not really in a place to vent any frustration toward his team for his poor start to the season.

"No, because I also put it in the wall, so it is difficult for me to point any fingers at the team," said Palmer.

"It is a shame because it is a similar case to Melbourne where I lost a lot of track time, you try to make up for it and probably if I had dialled in a lot better in FP3 then I think we had the pace to be in Q1 comfortably.

"But if you haven't done many laps, it becomes a bit more on the limit, dig deep and explore new limits. Me losing track time certainly contributed but it is my mistake, a simple one hitting the kerb on the lap."

Asked how he is coping with his poor start, he added: "With difficulty… it is not going my way but it is a long season. It wasn't going my way this time last season as well. I actually felt good with the car today, I think the guys did a good job to change the chassis last night and we were in a good place with the set up.

"Compared to Nico, the few laps I have done, it has not been so bad. It is just… obviously very disappointing to put it in the wall like that. There are positives but a lot of negatives as well."

Palmer also does not believe that team-mate Nico Hulkenberg is being favoured by the team.

He said: "I am confident [in Renault], it is just the way it has been. The one time there was a problem on his car he wasn't even driving it!

"That is how it goes. I am sure the luck will turn and like I said last year it was tough times and I dug in and finished the year with a very good second half. We are not even a quarter through the year so there are plenty of races to turn it around."