Jolyon Palmer has slammed his Renault Formula One car after a poor qualifying performance left him on the back-row of the grid for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Palmer had already suffered a disrupted weekend having crashed in second practice on Friday. Following an overnight rebuild, the Briton could only manage 19th in final practice on Saturday morning, before his early exit from Q1 came after setting the slowest time of qualifying, nearly a full second down on the Williams of Lance Stroll.
New Renault recruit Nico Hulkenberg qualified 12th, while a fuel system problem hampered Palmer during the session, which he labelled a disaster.
"We had a fuel surge on the first run, so I didn't do a lap," Palmer said. "I did my second lap, it was my first of the weekend on ultrasoft and to be honest the car was awful. Yesterday the car was feeling good, yeah I crashed, which was my bad, but I was really happy with the car at least and showing something sensible in the lap times.
"Today, the car was put back together, I have to thank the guys, but it's actually a disaster. I'm a second off what I did on my second lap in FP1, which is pretty terrible. The brakes are terrible, the balance is pretty horrible and the traction is terrible."
Palmer will start Sunday's race ahead of Stroll in 19th due to a grid penalty for the Canadian after his heavy crash damaged the gearbox in his FW40, forcing a gearbox change.