Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Spin only error on Palmer debut

Jolyon Palmer says a spin on the second lap of his Friday practice debut was “the only thing that didn’t go smoothly” in China.

The 2014 GP2 champion was making his FP1 debut for Lotus at the Shanghai International Circuit when he lost the rear of his car exiting Turn 8 and slid sideways off the circuit. Having recovered to complete 25 laps and setting a best time just 0.6s slower than Pastor Maldonado in the other car, Palmer says he is pleased with his progress on a new circuit.

"It was a good session for me,” Palmer said. "There was always going to be a lot to learn as I hadn't driven the car for two months, and I haven't been here before. I didn't even drive it on the simulator.

"There was a lot to take in, I had to build up from scratch. In the end I got a lot of laps in and I managed to build up a reasonable enough pace, one I was quite happy with given the circumstances.

"It was quite a smooth session. I had a nice slide on lap two, but apart from that it went to plan. We went through all the testing we needed to do, new parts, aero, all the procedures, a lot of practice starts, so I'm quite happy.”

Explaining his spin, Palmer admits he was set back by the incident having been caught out on a track low on grip.

"It was a green track, I was still getting up to speed with the car and circuit, and the two of them came together in a bit of a horrible mess. The next thing I knew I was sideways into the right-hander, but I kept it out of the barriers, gravel, and I got it going again.

"I lost a bit of confidence and it took a couple of laps to get back into the swing of it, and I had vibrations as well as I'd flat-spotted the tyres quite well. It wasn't a big problem, but it obviously wasn't ideal to have that on the second lap. It was the only thing that didn't go smoothly."

By Chris Medland in Shanghai

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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.