Practice report
Formula 1 British GP
P14 for Jolyon in Silverstone Free Practice One
Jolyon Palmer, Lotus F1 Team Third and Reserve Driver, completed 26 laps at Silverstone, his home race.
Edited: Jul 3, 2015, 3:36 PM
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Jolyon Palmer finished Free Practice One in 14th position at Silverstone this morning (Friday), as he worked through a considerable amount of development and set-up work as part of his role as Lotus F1 Team Third and Reserve Driver. The 24-year-old completed 26 laps of the Arena Grand Prix Circuit at his home race as he took over driving duties of the E23 Hybrid from Romain Grosjean for the session, ahead of this Sunday's (5 July) British Grand Prix.
I’ve been coming here to see the British Grand Prix since I was about three, so to drive an F1 car here on a Grand Prix weekend is pretty incredible.
Jolyon Palmer
Following a pair of installation laps to begin the session, Jolyon took to the circuit on hard tyres for a long stint and posted an initial lap time of 1m40.954s to move into ninth position. The young Brit quickly improved, shaving large amounts of time off his best time and after pushing hard for five laps he posted a 1m37.262s, only 1.871s slower than fastest man at the time, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. As he pitted following his first stint, Jolyon was in 11th position ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez and his team-mate Pastor Maldonado.
With just under half the session remaining, Jolyon returned to the Silverstone circuit once again on a set of hard tyres to continue his programme for Free Practice One. A short run of four consecutive flying laps followed but he did not improve his best time. Another shorter run was carried out before the 2014 GP2 Champion pitted with eight minutes remaining. He reappeared in the final three minutes to lay down some rubber in the Lotus F1 Team pitbox to conclude the session, with Jolyon finishing in 14th position.
Free Practice One was once again headed by the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, with the German driver coming out on top by 0.070s. Dutchman Max Verstappen ended third quickest with Kimi Raikkonen fourth for Ferrari and Carlos Sainz fifth in his Toro Rosso. Jolyon's fellow Lotus F1 Team driver Pastor Maldonado was 16th quickest in the session.
Jolyon Palmer said: “The session started off well for me, the first run was clean and then we tried something different on the set-up but it didn’t work, so the car was a real handful to drive after the first half an hour. The baseline is not bad but we need to revert back on the changes so we have some work to do. From my perspective, I am quite happy with how I did and from the team’s perspective, it wasn’t the most encouraging but at least we know the right direction to go in.
“I was very happy to drive in front of my home crowd. It was really special to be driving a Formula One car on a nice, sunny day at Silverstone. I’ve been coming here to see the British Grand Prix since I was about three, so to drive an F1 car here on a Grand Prix weekend is pretty incredible.”
Alan Permane, Trackside Operations Director for Lotus F1 Team, added: "We enjoyed great conditions at Silverstone this morning so Jolyon was able to run through a decent programme. As we had a clutch issue with Pastor's car, Jolyon's FP1 data became all the more important and at times like this having a quality driver in the car pays dividends. The nature of the Silverstone circuit with its high speed corners is somewhat different from the tracks we've visited recently so we have some set-up work yet to complete, but we've made a promising start to the weekend."
British Grand Prix - Free Practice One - Results
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m34.274s
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m34.344s
3. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m35.530s
4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m35.588s
5. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1m35.669s
6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m35.739s
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m35.818s
8. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m35.876s
9. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m36.157s
10. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m36.469s
11. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1m36.855s
12. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1m36.889s
13. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m37.242s
14. Jolyon Palmer, Lotus F1 Team, 1m37.262s
15. Raffaele Marciello, Sauber, 1m37.372s
16. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus F1 Team, 1m38.080s
17. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1m38.222s
18. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m38.860s
19. Will Stevens, Marussia, 1m38.981s
20. Roberto Merhi, Marussia, 1m40.477s
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