Renault investigating Palmer’s testing fire

Editor

Renault are still investigating the cause of the fire that broke out on Jolyon Palmer’s final in-lap at the conclusion of the post-British GP test.

The Brit, who had been putting in the laps at the Silverstone circuit on the second and final day of the test, had smoky end to his day as his RS16 caught fire.

The exact cause of the fire, though, has yet be established.

“It looks to be the result of a hydraulic leak and we’re naturally investigating what happened,” team boss Fred Vasseur said.

“The fortunate thing is that the fire happened on the final in-lap of the day so we were able to complete all we could for that day.

“There was no issue for Jo and the fire was soon extinguished.”

As for Palmer, he jokingly said at least Renault set something alight that day, even if it wasn’t the timesheets.

“Although we didn’t set the world alight with our lap time we did manage to set the car itself alight which certainly wasn’t part of the plan,” added the Brit.

“It looks like it was a hydraulic leak but fortunately it was all under control pretty quickly.

“It happened on our final in-lap of the test so it didn’t affect our day’s programme however it did give the crew at the track and back at Enstone quite a bit of unexpected work to do afterwards!”