GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer excelled in his F1 testing debut with Sahara Force India yesterday (Tuesday), posting the fourth fastest time at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit, despite technical issues limiting running.

The 23-year-old lapped within 0.004s of World Championship contender Nico Rosberg in this year's dominant Mercedes car, and the Force India team were full of praise for Jolyon's performance.

Tom McCullough, Force India's Chief Engineer, commented: "It's always exciting being part of a driver's first day driving a Formula One car and Jolyon certainly acquitted himself well.

"He settled into the team very quickly and everyone was impressed with his approach to the day, especially his communication with the engineers.

"The early part of the day involved some aero data collection, which went to plan and should give us some useful information for the design of next year's car. It was a shame that we suffered an issue with the engine towards the end of the morning, which confined us to the garage for a large part of the day.

"The crew did a good job to get the car out for the final hour of running to give Jolyon some more valuable mileage."