Palmer takes the blame for quali crash

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Jolyon Palmer must have thought that at least his luck couldn't get any worse at Sochi. And then it did.

The Renault team had already been forced into replacing Palmer's chassis overnight. And when he went out on Saturday morning in FP3 he was instantly hit with an engine problem.

The team replaced the power unit over lunch and Palmer was able to take part in qualifying. However Q1 ended prematurely for him, with the Renault going into the tyre wall in turn 4.

"I was on the back foot slightly with missing FP3," he pointed out.

"I was pushing hard and took too much kerb, which pitched me into the barriers," Palmer continued. "Qualifying was actually going okay. I was quite happy with the car.

"On the second set of tyres, I had a massive snap on the first lap and I didn't improve," he said. "I was down to one lap. Then under pressure, I just committed hard and took a little bit of kerb, which wasn't ideal."

Palmer said that he accepted his share of the blame for the team's misfortunes this weekend.

"I have to say a big thank you to all my crew and everyone in the garage who has worked so hard over this weekend," he added. "They really have been amazing. And now they have a bit more work to do.

Vettel and Raikkonen lock out Sochi front row

Palmer will now line up in 16th place on the grid for the Russian Grand Prix. "Anything can happen in the race, so I hope for a better day," he said.

Renault's sporting director Alan Permane said that Palmer was very much out of position on the grid. That should give the Briton a good chance to make progress in the race.

"Unfortunately for Jo, he easily had the pace to charge for Q3 but it was not to be today," Permane pointed out.

Palmer's teammate Nico Hulkenberg had a much better time on Saturday. He made it into Q3 and will start from eighth place in Sochi on Sunday.

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Sochi

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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.