Palmer 'gutted' as spin costs chance of first points

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Jolyon Palmer says he is "gutted" after spinning when in tenth place during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The 2014 GP2 champion is yet to score a point in his rookie F1 season as Renault has struggled so far this year. However, an improved showing in Budapest saw Palmer running in tenth place after his final pit stop but the Briton then spun at Turn 4 and he admits it's a costly mistake which he will investigate.

“I’m gutted as my first points in Formula 1 were there for the taking," Palmer said. "The car was good and I was driving well within myself in P10. I turned in the same as normal at turn four - I wasn’t hanging everything out and I was looking after the tyres - but for some reason I lost the car in a massive snap.

"I need to look at everything with my engineers to see if there is anything we could have done to prevent it.

"I was running tenth, we had completed all our pit stops, we had good pace relative to those ahead and behind so it looks like we’ve made a real step forward this weekend.

"It was the best drive of my career and just one small spin took away those points. I’m gutted but I’ll be fighting to get in the same position or better in Hockenheim.”

Palmer still finished three positions ahead of team-mate Kevin Magnussen, who scored Renault's only points of 2016 so far at the Russian Grand Prix.

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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.