Renault ran a three-driver set-up for the opening day of the Formula One Malaysia Grand Prix on Friday with race drivers Jolyon Palmer and Nico Hülkenberg joined by Third and Reserve driver Sergey Sirotkin on track.
Sergey ran in Nico's car in the wet morning session, he managed to complete ten laps and post the tenth-fastest time.
“Overall I'm quite happy with today's session,” he said. “Our programme was somewhat compromised by the heavy rain at the start but as soon as the car was out, I was able to quickly adapt to the conditions. I hadn't driven on a wet track in a while and it was a first for me in a current car, it was nice to get some experience in. I feel we were able to get some good runs, had a good rhythm and we were able to get good information in wet conditions which could help over the course of the weekend.”
Nico then reclaimed his cockpit for the dry afternoon session and recorded the ninth-fastest lap.
“The afternoon session was ok; we were trying to learn as much as we can in a short amount of time,” he said. “We weren't able to get that many laps in and obviously the red flag cost us a bit of time as well. We have some work to do on balance overnight but we'll get there for tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, British driver Jolyon Palmer had a smooth day, finishing eleventh in both sessions.
“I'm quite happy with what we accomplished today,” he said. “I think we are in a reasonable place but we definitively have some work to do on the car - but that's somewhat encouraging because the pace wasn't so bad. We need focus on balance with the Wet tyres, we'll work on it and I'm sure we'll get them working for us.”
