Jolyon Palmer will take part in the next five FP1 sessions for Lotus as well as the in-season test in Austria.

Reserve driver Palmer has so far taken part in free practice sessions in China, Bahrain and Spain as part of his role, replacing Romain Grosjean on each occasion. Lotus has now confirmed Palmer will take part in the remaining Friday morning sessions of the European season, while also driving on one day of the test after the Austrian Grand Prix.

Palmer says the opportunity to complete such consistent running will allow him to build on his first three appearances at race weekends.

"I'm really pleased to be driving in FP1 for the rest of the European season," Palmer said. "I've been happy with my performances so far and the car is improving all the time so, after watching on at the last two events, it will be great to be driving again."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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