Jolyon Palmer left Budapest a frustrated man, convinced a points-scoring finish could have been achieved without a compromising strategy switch in the Renault camp.
Palmer's Hungarian GP start was rather messy, through no fault of his own, having found himself hard on the brakes to avoid the out of control Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.
The Briton raced however to the best of his ability, moving all the way up to P8 before a pitstop strategy call, destined to favour team mate Nico Hulkenberg, sent him down the order and behind the slower cars of Kevin Magnussen and Dany Kvyat.
"The start was okay, but I lost out when I had to avoid Ricciardo, who suddenly slowed and that dropped me out of the top ten," Palmer said.
"As well as letting him through, my strategy was compromised today to try and help Nico's race, and that meant Magnussen and Kvyat jumped me.
"It was a frustrating run to the flag with much more pace, but no chance to overtake them on this track. Now I'm looking forward to summer break and switching off from racing to reset for Belgium."
Facing difficult times, marked once again by a mishap in free practice in Hungary, Jolyon Palmer is struggling to retrieve his confidence.
The 26-year-old will no doubt be attentive to Robert Kubica's run behind the wheel of Renault's RS17 at Budapest's in-season test.
If the Pole puts in a spectacular performance, the writing will likely be on the wall for Palmer.
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