until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Jean-Eric Vergne has revealed that he suffered a variety of issues on his way to a dispiriting 10th place at Tempelhof in the second Berlin E-Prix on Thursday, which he has described as “a nightmare”.
Vergne’s single point haul means that he has claimed 52 fewer points in total than title favourite Antonio Felix da Costa in Berlin and means the defending champion sits 12th in the standings – a full 93 points adrift of his DS Techeetah team-mate.
Vergne started the race in eighth position but appeared to be in the hunt for a potential podium charge in the initial phases of the race until he first endured a power cut while going for his attack mode boost.
A mystery handling imbalance, which was so severe he thought it was a puncture, then compromised his pace in the second phase of the E-Prix.
“I can say it was a bit of a nightmare,” said Vergne
“The race started OK. I was picking up a lot of energy as well, driving very cautiously behind the other guys, and I was having a nice gap energy.
“I thought that I would have a strong end of the race like I usually do when I start in this kind of position. But my first attack mode, I had a power cut the power for a few seconds and lost positions, and the energy I gained, I lost.”
The cut in power is believed to have been a legacy of contact with Edoardo Mortara’s Venturi while battling for seventh position.
Mortara was fighting what is believed to have been a slow puncture throughout the race but was criticised by Vergne for the incident.
“Mortara really squeezed me into the wall and I had to brake, this is when I had my power cut,” said Vergne.
DS Techeetah was still investigating the mystery imbalance after the race to assess whether there was damage caused by contact with Audi’s Lucas di Grassi or if it was as a result of rubber pick-up.
Buemi rues missed victory chance
Sebastien Buemi rued a poorly timed first attack boost deployment but was also buoyed by improvements made to his Nissan IM02 car for the second Berlin E-Prix in which he took the runner-up position.
The Nissan e.dams team cured traction issues overnight to lead the charge behind da Costa’s dominance.
Buemi qualified 0.4s shy of runaway points leader da Costa but stayed in touch with the DS Techeetah car during the early phase of the race.
However, any notion of further challenging for the lead was compromised when he took his first attack boost just prior to a full course yellow being deployed for debris on the track to be cleared.
“I got screwed basically with the attack mode, the first one, I took it and there was a full course yellow,” said Buemi
“I lost basically the advantage of the attack mode, which I think without that, it would have been a bit better and I also had to fight Lucas [di Grassi] and had to pass him back and I lost a bit of time.
“I took him back he basically ran in to the back of the car. I knew this would happen.”
Buemi believes that the improvements made overnight, which significantly improved the traction capabilities of his car
“In terms of pure pace we were not too far I would say. It feels like a win today,” he said.
“We basically had huge issues with the rear tyres. After three laps, we had no more rear tyres and I couldn’t really keep up with the other guys.
“Today we changed completely the philosophy of the setup to try to save the rear tyres more and it’s somehow paid off properly.”
