Following his crash in second practice on Friday, Palmer was only 19th in FP3 this morning in his rebuilt car.

But his qualifying performance was even worse, not helped by a fuel system problem on his first run. His 1m28.244s was over a second off the next-slowest car, the Williams of Lance Stroll.

“We had a fuel surge on the first run, so I didn’t do a lap,” said Palmer. “My second lap was the first of the weekend on ultrasoft and to be honest the car was awful.

“Yesterday the car was feeling good before I crashed, which was my bad, but I was really happy with the car at least and showing something sensible in the lap times.

“Today, the car was put back together, I have to thank the guys, but it’s actually a disaster. I’m a second off what I did on my second lap in FP1, which is pretty terrible.

“The brakes are terrible, the balance is pretty horrible and the traction is terrible.”

Palmer will start ahead of Stroll, however, due to the Canadian's grid penalty.