Palmer's patience tested to braking point

Starting from the back of the grid on Sunday, it was never likely to be a red letter day for Jolyon Palmer.

The Briton had been left fuming after a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday which saw him starting the Grand Prix from the back row of the grid.

But once the race got underway it seemed for a short period as though things might be looking up for the Renault driver.

"The race to be honest was going all right," Palmer said after the race. "Managed to make up some couple of places on the soft tyre. Tyres were hanging on well.

"I could see Nico [Hulkenberg] and [Esteban] Ocon in front as well, so it was going alright."

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But just as Palmer was beginning to think his rotten luck in Melbourne was about to turn at last, it all fell apart as the car suddenly slowed on track on lap 11. Although he picked up speed again, it happened on the next lap around. And the next.

"The brakes just kept sticking on," Palmer sighed. "It was turn 13, 14. It was weirdly those two places so we're investigating what it was.

"We suddenly ground to a halt. Pumped the pedal and it was coming back," he explained. "We hoped it was just a glitch, but it happened again so we had no alternative other than to retire."

"Obviously this weekend, every session there's been problems," he said. "Hopefully we can get them out of the way here and have much better luck in future.

"It’s not been the start I wanted to my season, so we’ll put it down to experience," he added. "But yeah - I'm looking forward to China, let's say."

GALLERY: all the pics from Sunday's action

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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.