Renault pair bemoan lack of downforce in Suzuka qualifying

Both Palmer and teammate Nico Hulkenberg were knocked out in Q2, with the latter missing out on a spot in the final qualifying segment by 0.130 seconds.

It marks only the second time in the last seven races that Hulkenberg has failed to qualifying inside the top 10.

"We found ourselves a little on the back foot in qualifying," admitted the German. "Normally with track improvement the car gets better and better and the balance gets better but today it was kind of the opposite.

"I was struggling more and more, later in Q2 I was fighting my rear axle with oversteer.

"My perfect lap with this balance I could have had 0.15s [to get into Q3], but I was driving like that so it was very tricky. A little bit disappointed."

Asked to pinpoint the Renault's issue, he added: "Balance a little bit, also grip. In sector one we seem pretty uncompetitive which we don't quite understand."

Palmer, who qualified 14th but starts from 18th after taking a 20-place grid penalty for an engine change on Friday night, echoed Hulkenberg's thoughts.

"A bit disappointing," said the Briton. "I think we don't have enough downforce on the car, that's my feeling.

"In sector one we're not very competitive and that should traditionally be quite a good sector for us here. I think we're missing a bit of downforce.

"In the set-up we've got enough that we can put more on, but we elected to go for a lower downforce approach. I think probably that's where we're missing something."

Palmer confirmed that his engine penalty was something that Renault knew it would have to face at some stage before the end of the season, but didn't expect to have any further changes for the remaining races.

"We knew it was coming, even since Monza we knew there was one to take around this sort of time," he said.