RACE CENTRE FORMULA E ROME
34 AUTOSPORT.COM 18 APRIL 2019Swift repair got Bird back in
the race, although he could
L not get higher than 11th
EICESTERLEICESTERS^ BLOXHAMda Costa, the trio rising through the chaos
from 13th, 19th and 11th respectively on the
grid due to the group-one track deficit. The
title fight remains finely poised, with
13 points covering the top nine drivers.
As night fell in the paddock after the
race, Jaguar reacted with well-deserved
delight. It’s no wonder team boss James
Barclay described the “relief” his squad
was feeling given that its FE story until
now had contained little joy.
Its first campaign was a disaster, and the
progress it did make last season amounted
to one pole and podium, which it never got
to enjoy for real as Evans’s Hong Kong third
only came after Daniel Abt was disqualified.
Evans’s stealthy rise to fourth in Riyadhtwo rounds, and Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara
and Massa both retired in Rome with what
the team called “transmission problems”
after the drivers suggested over the radio
that they had driveshaft issues.
“There was not an energy problem [at
the end],” said Vandoorne after scoring his
first podium since winning the final race of
the 2016 Super Formula season. “I was
aware of the situation with the other
[Venturi] cars and the failures. We were
so lucky today to make it to the flag.”
Robin Frijns beat Buemi’s Nissan to
secure a fine fourth in his Virgin Audi,
and Oliver Rowland (Nissan) was sixth.
Di Grassi led the championship leaders
home in seventh ahead of d’Ambrosio andFRUSTRATION FOR BIRD
Sam Bird finished 11th after his car was
hurriedly repaired under the red flags, for
which he lauded his Virgin mechanics for
their swift work. But it was a frustrating
day for Bird, who had to contend with
running a practice tyre in qualifying after
getting a puncture on his quali set in FP1.VERGNE PENALISED
Jean-Eric Vergne recovered to finish
seventh at the flag following his time
spent underneath Gary Paffett’s car
during the early pile-up. But the reigning
champion was punished for overtaking
Antonio Felix da Costa under the full-
course yellow and was dropped to 14th,
which enraged him as he felt similar
moves had gone unpunished in Mexico.STRICTER RACING RULES
Autosport revealed ahead of the race that
the FIA would take stricter action against
clumsy contact between drivers. This
new policy, which includes a verbal
warning that can be superseded if
contact is immediately severe, was
brought in to ease complaints that the
robust Gen2 car was not ‘self-punishing’
drivers at fault for collisions by breaking
and losing significant performance.TOO COOL FOR WEHRLEIN?
Pascal Wehrlein rounded out the top 10
in the race for Mahindra Racing. The
former Manor and Sauber Formula 1
driver has had a quiet time since nearly
winning in Santiago and Mexico City at
the start of 2019, which he feels may be
down to his car struggling more in the
subsequent races’ colder conditions.MORE SIMS TROUBLE
Alexander Sims endured another tough
event with BMW Andretti. He suffered an
“electrical fault” just after hitting the
notorious pre-Turn 9 bump in qualifying
and had to start last as a result, then “just
misjudged the amount of brake pressure
needed in the wet and cold” in the
slippery early stages and crashed (below).
He was able to keep going, get repairs
under the red flag, and come home 17th.IN THE HEADLINES