Palmer dismisses rumors to focus on performance

Jolyon Palmer is pushing aside speculation about his future at Renault to focus on turning around a season which has yet to yield a championship point.

It's been a difficult second year at Renault for the Brit, marked by mishaps and crashes which are spinning the rumor mill, with gossip predicting Palmer's impending demise and his possible replacement by the French team's reserve drive Sergey Sirotkin.

The 2014 GP2 champion is keeping a cool head however, unmindful of the pressure as he keeps his focus on the job in hand.

"What puts pressure on is not putting in good performances," Palmer said.

"I’m aware that the start of the year has been pretty disappointing. I’m working hard and I’m ready to turn it around.

"In terms of the rumors, there’s been rumors since my third ever race in Formula 1, so there’s nothing new for me.

"Of course the way to stop it is to do well on-track and hopefully I can do that this weekend."

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Palmer finished just outside the points in Monaco after a consistent drive, and the result was a welcome morale booster.

"It is a confidence boost. Obviously it’s been a very tough start to the year, but there’s been some positives recently, even if it doesn’t necessarily show on the results sheet," Palmer said.

"But Monaco at least yeah, a race distance and we were pretty competitive in terms of times as well. But obviously when you start 16th, it’s difficult to make any overtakes or do much else, running around in the traffic.

"But at least with a better pace and we could take a bit of confidence in here."

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