Derek Palmer Jr happy to safely negotiate first session for Infiniti

Infiniti’s Derek Palmer Jr declared himself happy to have safely negotiated the “worst case scenario” of a greasy Brands Hatch track for his first official session in the new Q50.

Palmer Jr only got behind the wheel of the the car for the first time at Mallory Park on Wednesday, before clocking up 17 laps in this morning’s first free practice session as he concentrated on bedding in brakes and scrubbing tyres.

The Scot is the team’s sole representative in Kent, following issues which sidelined team-mate Richard Hawken. He told TouringCarTimes that his aims for the weekend are more track time and three race finishes.

Speaking about first practice, Palmer Jr said: “It was mostly about scrubbing in tyres for tomorrow. It would have been nice from a driver’s perspective to do a couple of longer runs, but we’ve laid the groundwork for tomorrow.

“They were difficult conditions. Having not done much running, that was probably the worse case scenario for us, but we came out the other side and we’re quite happy with it.

“Generally it’s you against the track when it’s that greasy. It’s not rained enough to clean the circuit so it’s very oily and green.”

The team has seven former Paratroopers working on the Q50 this weekend, and Palmer Jr said they were in his thoughts when he ventured onto the circuit.

“It was great seeing the guys doing their thing and you don’t want to disappoint them – the last thing you want to do is have an off, so that was at the forefront of my mind,” he said.