Renault Sport Formula One Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer will line up on the ninth and tenth rows of the grid for the Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix. Kevin lapped the Marina Bay Street Circuit in a time of 1min 46.825secs, the 17th fastest of qualifying, whilst Jolyon was 19th with a 1min 46.960secs.
Kevin Magnussen
“We were hoping to be more competitive this weekend but it didn’t come together in qualifying. I hope that our race pace will be better as it usually is, so let’s see. It’s a race that tends to have quite a few safety cars, that shows that a lot of things can happen here and we just need to be there to pick up any points that may come our way.”
Jolyon Palmer
“Qualifying was looking to be going okay; on my final lap I was picking up pace however I pushed the tyres too hard - overheating the rears with a big slide – so the performance fell off a cliff, meaning that I was nowhere in the second half of that lap. If I hadn’t overheated the tyres there was definitely a good few tenths of pace in the offing. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director:
How was qualifying for the team?
We can’t disguise that we struggled for pace here. Neither driver had a perfect lap but breaking into Q2 would have been a strong statement given the performance of the car on this track.
What are the considerations for tomorrow’s race?
It’s going to be a long race in terms of time and it’s a tough one on cars and drivers because of the heat. We’ll be focused on making no mistakes, having fast pit stops and giving Kevin and Jolyon the best opportunities to work up the order.