Renault driver Jolyon Palmer secured his season best finish in the recent Monaco Grand Prix where he crossed the finish line in eleventh place, only one position shy of a points scoring finish.
As this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix is on a layout that is a mix of track and street circuit, the British driver believes that racing on the streets of the Principality ten days ago was good practice for what is about to come and as such he is targeting going one better with a points haul on Sunday.
What do you make of Montréal?
I raced there for the first time last year, it is a street circuit again but a different one compared to Monaco, as there are more opportunities to overtake. The weather is a question mark as there have been many wet races there in the past. I enjoyed it last year, even though my race was rather curtailed for reasons outside my control. We should be a good chunk more competitive this time around. We'll do everything we can to maximise the car around the track and we'll be pushing all the way as usual. In terms of the city, the place is really cool and one which genuinely embraces Formula 1.
Is it a tricky circuit to navigate?
It is a fun track with lots of sequences, we need to prepare for the exits of the corners and get ready for the long straights. Then there is the ‘Wall of Champions', where you can win or lose a lot of time, or hit the wall as well. Monaco is good practice I think, we had a strong race there and hopefully we can build on the confidence. It will be a similar story to Monaco in terms of the new cars, with width and wider rear tyres making things tricky. You are right up against the walls in a lot of corners in Canada, and it will be even tighter and narrower with these cars!
After the strong Monaco result, is it important now to keep building?
It is pretty hard to overtake in Monaco, so eleventh from P16 was it, and just one second away from getting the first point of the year. It felt much better than P11 and we can certainly take this momentum to Canada and aim for a strong weekend with a good result on Sunday.
