Palmer says qualifying performance “depressing”

On the heels of what Palmer reckoned was his best Friday this season, he could not get out of Q1, ending up 19th on the grid, as teammate Kevin Magnussen scored 14th.

"I am disappointed, because this is a real chance to do well and I haven't done it," said the Briton.

"It's a shame, because FP2 and FP3 everything was looking good - and then qualy it all goes to shit.

"Race pace was very good, everything was pointing in the right direction, and then in qualifying everything came undone.

"Looking initially, when you've finished the session and it goes like that, when you're expecting to be in Q2... it's pretty depressing.

"I put it behind me and see what I can do tomorrow. But obviously, it's nicer to be looking in the rear mirrors at the start and seeing a lot more cars than just Manor and [Fernando] Alonso."

High-speed corners

Elaborating on his struggles in qualifying, Palmer mentioned a straightline speed deficit and a loss of stability in high-speed corners.

"I'm slow on the straights, two km/h down every straight, doesn't help - and then we need to look into why the high-speed is so bad," he explained.

"I need to understand why we've lost rear-end [grip] in the high-speed [corners], because clearly that was the case. It's proved by the fact that first lap [in qualifying] I went in similar what I did in FP3, and the rear snapped, and I lost the lap. I compromised the set-up for the second run to make it a bit easier in the high-speed.

"The [second] lap, I didn't make any big mistakes until I got to the last corner, but already I was slow, so I pushed even harder in the last corner. Just wasn't really there."

Contract pressure not a factor

Palmer's F1 future is currently in the air, as his Renault team has yet to announce who will pilot its cars in 2017.

While he conceded the uncertainty in his plans is at the back of his mind, he insisted it had no impact on his performance on Saturday.

"I know this is a great chance for me to do a good job, because the whole weekend has been going really well," he said. "You get to qualifying - and everything's irrelevant, you need to do the good job in qualifying - and I do a bad job.

"Of course, it's on your mind that you don't have the contract for next year and you want to do a good job. But whatever happens, I'm pushing my hardest in qualifying.

"It's in the back of your mind. I wouldn't say I blame it on pressure. Clearly, qualifying, for whatever reason, I didn't do a good job."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble