WHILE heavy rain washed out virtually all yesterday’s practice sessions for tomorrow’s Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix, Jolyon Palmer was a relieved man.

Palmer insists the slate has been wiped clean after his Enstone-based Renault team diagnosed the car problem that contributed to his retirement after just 18 laps in the opener at Melbourne;

The 26-year-old said “We realised there was an issue with the car

“We had a fuel surge issues. Then I put it into the wall in practice. Then we did 12 laps in the race and I had a brake problem.

“They were simple things to fix and we start from scratch.”

“Now I can clear my head, and focus on a car good enough to score points.”

His teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished just out of the points in 11th place.

Felipe Massa, who came sixth in Melbourne for the Grove-based Williams team, managed to get in some practice at Shanghai.

He said: “We did a few laps on the wet tyres, which felt OK, but it was not really enough to understand the tyres.”

l OXFORDSHIRE rider Bradley Smith will be aiming to improve on in his 17th place in Qatar when he competes for Red Bull KTM in tomorrow’s Argentina MotoGP at the Termas de Río Hondo track.