Team Talk - Sunday in Hungary

Renault

Motor Racing - Formula One World Championship - Hungarian Grand Prix - Race Day - Budapest, Hungary

Kevin Magnussen
“The car definitely felt better this weekend. I had a pretty decent stint on my first set of supersoft tyres; I was able to look after them well and do quite a few laps on that set. Unfortunately that was after a poor start where I lost a few positions. I’ve had really good practice starts all weekend so that was quite disappointing. From then on, we pushed to make up places but my second stint on supersoft didn’t go as well as I hoped and the last part of the race was spent behind Grosjean and Gutierrez. I certainly hope we can carry our improved pace into the rest of the season.”

Jolyon Palmer
“I’m gutted as my first points in Formula 1 were there for the taking. The car was good and I was driving well within myself in P10. I turned in the same as normal at turn four - I wasn’t hanging everything out and I was looking after the tyres - but for some reason I lost the car in a massive snap. I need to look at everything with my engineers to see if there is anything we could have done to prevent it. I was running tenth, we had completed all our pit stops, we had good pace relative to those ahead and behind so it looks like we’ve made a real step forward this weekend. It was the best drive of my career today and just one small spin took away those points. I’m gutted today but I’ll be fighting to get in the same position or better in Hockenheim.”

Frédéric Vasseur, team principal
“That was a strong race for us and illustrates the progress being made. It’s no secret that our primary focus has moved to next year’s car but we still have good potential to score in 2016. Both drivers did a very good job, but Jolyon’s performance was particularly notable after missing most of Friday’s running. His spin was unfortunate, especially as his first Formula 1 points were there for the taking. Overall the team and both drivers have worked very well this weekend and made a great recovery from the back of the grid in a race where there was only one retirement. We hope to continue this trajectory in Hockenheim.”