Formula E’s newest team Panasonic Jaguar Racing made positive progress during their South American debut in Argentina. Mitch Evans secured P7 on the starting grid, the first top ten position for the British outfit in only its third race.
Evans’s race was busy from lights to flag as he battled with Nico Prost (Renault e.dams) and Felix Rosenqvist (Mahindra Racing) into the first corner pushing the New Zealander down the order to P9. During the first stint the Jaguar I-TYPE driver managed to regain the two positions with some great race craft. Ultimately Evans narrowly missed out on the team’s debut points finishing P13.
“We’ve made a really good step forward and that is evident from the result in qualifying. In the race, I was happy with the pace and the energy management was going according to plan. I was looking forward to holding my position in the second stint, but unfortunately I was struggling to manage the energy for some reason and couldn’t push as hard as before. I dropped four places and ended up just out of the points. It was really disappointing not to come away with our first points but it just wasn’t meant to be this time”, summarised Evans.
Photo: Zak Mauger/LAT/Formula E
Team-mate Adam Carroll struggled to find confidence in his car set up and started the race in P15. The Briton’s race was compromised from the start when his car failed to get off the grid before he was able to start one lap down on the field. The 34-year-old did his best to fight back to finish P17 in front of Mahindra’s Felix Rosenqvist.
“The race was tough. I’d hoped to have a strong race and come through but I had an issue with the start, right when I was about to take off I couldn’t launch the car. We’re not sure why and it’s something that the engineers are looking into now. Luckily, I was able to get going and could continue and complete the race. We got a lot of good data out of it but unfortunately no result this time”, Carroll said.
Team Director James Barclay pointed out: “This was our best qualifying result this season. Things have truly come together and Mitch did really well managing to run with the front pack. The team should be really proud of what we have achieved today as we moved the performance forward and bridged the gap to the other teams. We have achieved a lot in only three races. In summary we are moving in the right directions and can’t wait for our next race in Mexico.”
