Renault's Jolyon Palmer says he is "very happy" with his performance on Saturday in Belgium after he sailed through to Q3 with ease, despite reliability issues striking him in the final session, forcing him to pull off track with smoke billowing from his R.S.17.
The Briton has been under pressure to deliver after a miserable start to the season which sees him on zero points compared to team-mate Nico Hulkenberg's 26.
Things looked to have turned around this weekend as he was quicker than Hulkenberg in both Q1 and Q2, the latter of which he posted the seventh quickest time to easily make the Q3 cut, before problems struck in that session, pushing him down to tenth by default as he failed to set a timed lap.
"I still feel very positive, but I think we should probably be seventh on the grid and not tenth," Palmer said.
"The other thing is we have a risk of a grid penalty now – it was a gearbox problem. I’m still very happy because think Q1 and Q2 were very easy, in practice three, we were quick all day. The pace was there to be seventh, it’s just the shame the car couldn’t hang on."
When asked how things had suddenly turned around, Palmer said he didn't have an answer.
"I don’t know. I just turned up driven. The car’s been in a good place, except for practice one.
"I’ve been very happy with it. I haven’t had to make many changes. I have a confidence in it that I haven’t had in a while. I’m feeling good. I think a bit of altitude training’s done me something good and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow."
