Infiniti pair remain positive despite reccurance of power steering issues

The two Infiniti Support our Paras drivers were pleased with their Thruxton weekend, despite a return of the power steering issue that has plagued their season so far.

Martin Donnelly made his debut with the team at Thruxton, replacing Richard Hawken, and immediately found himself lapping at the same pace as team-mate Derek Palmer Jnr, who has been on track in the Q50 at all three circuits so far.

“To have both drivers similar pace-wise makes a big difference so we can try different things,” Palmer told TouringCarTimes. “We went totally different ways [with the setup] in every race and we’re learning more and more about the car but it’s very difficult on a race weekend to make those changes and to make them work.”

“We’re getting on well,” added Donnelly. “Information is free flowing between both drivers. We were using all three races and free practice sessions as a test session for us, so he and I had different setups for all three races, down different routes to see where we’re going to start on. We found something in the last race for me that I think Derek needs to try for the next race going forward.”

Both cars suffered during the weekend with power steering problems, forcing Palmer to miss FP2 and causing Donnelly to retire from race three. However, despite the setbacks, the team still managed to move forward, securing their best result to date with 17th in race two for Palmer.

“It’s hard,” continued Palmer. “It’s not a fight you want to fight it’s something you want to just get fixed and then work on other issues we’ve got to bring the car forward. It’s frustrating for sure from both sides of the camp. But I’m happy we’re getting an understanding, we got our best result of the season with 17th so there’s always positives to take away.”