ROOKIE Jolyon Palmer says he will savour the experience of what could be his first and last British Grand Prix this weekend.

Palmer, the 25-year-old former GP2 champion, will take his Silverstone bow in his Enstone-prepared Renault tomorrow, but with uncertainty surrounding his future beyond this season he knows it may be the only chance he gets to shine in front of his home crowd.

‘I have a one-year contract, so I definitely need to enjoy some of the places I go to because this could be my one and only British Grand Prix,’ Palmer said.

“I hope it is not and I am 100 per cent focused on making sure this is not my only British Grand Prix, but if it is my only one, it is because I am not doing a very good job.”

The son of Jonathan Palmer, who made 83 grands prix starts in the 1980s, has endured a tough start to his Formula One career in a Renault which has been well off the pace.

Indeed Palmer was having to fend off suggestions that he was set to be replaced by the team’s French reserve driver Esteban Ocon after just two races.

Palmer has found his first season a challenge after finishing 12th on debut in Australia

“I did the Melbourne race, out-qualified my team-mate Kevin Magnussen, out-raced him, and nearly got in the points in a car that shouldn’t have been in the points,” he said.

Palmer was again faster than his teammate after second practice yesterday, being 18th fastest out of the 22 drivers. Magnussen was down in 20th.

The fastest Oxfordshire driver was Valterri Bottas, who came seven for the Grove-based Williams team.

This was only one place ahead of Romain Grosjean, driving for the improving American Haas team, who are based in Banbury. His team-mate Esteban Gutierrez was 12th.

The second Williams driver, Felipe Massa was tenth fastest.

They were all trailing well behind reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who was quickest after second practice as teammate Nico Rosberg hit trouble.

Rosberg, the world championship leader, failed to do a single lap as his car suffered a water leak.

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was 0.391secs behind Hamilton and 0.235secs ahead of teammate Max Verstappen.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen were next.