Renault's Jolyon Palmer has hit out at top teams such as Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, for sometimes spoiling qualifying for the smaller outfits that struggle to escape the first session.
Palmer used a recent example with Lewis Hamilton in Baku to get his point across, claiming the Briton didn't need to push so hard on his Q1 lap which saw him make an error and run wide at Turn 15, bringing out yellow flags and spoiling other driver's laps, because Mercedes have the pace to get through to Q2 with ease.
"It's just frustrating, because he's clearly got the pace to get through Q1 and yet he's still causing yellow flags for us when we're trying to do our best in the only session we get," Palmer told Autosport.
The Renault driver was slowest in that particular session but believes he had the pace to go half a second quicker – which would have promoted him two places – had he not needed to back off for the yellow flags.
"In Q1, some of the top teams relax and it's like a practice session for them," he added. "But for us it's our entire session. So if they're causing yellow flags on two of our four laps it's quite painful for us.
"They can do a lap that's a second off what's possible for them and still get through."
Discussion about this post