Rome E-Prix – Mitch Evans says the second full course yellow period during the Rome Formula E race “completely destroyed” his chances of scoring Jaguar’s first victory in the all-electric series.
Evans was running in third in the early stages of the race and stopped a lap later than the leaders, which dropped him behind Sebastien Buemi but he was able to use his energy advantage to retake the podium place.
He was closing in on the top two when leader Felix Rosenqvist retired with a suspension failure after hitting a kerb, which brought out the full course yellow.
“The first full course yellow I was a bit gutted, because when you’re on my strategy the last thing you want is safety cars and full course yellows because they gain so much energy from those and all the targets end up going up and the lifting point becomes shorter,” Evans said.
“What I want is for them to a low as possible because when the pace is low, the coasting points are long, there’s more opportunity for me to pass.
“The second one completely destroyed me to be honest because I had used a lot to catch up to them, and the second one completely saved them.”
Evans admitted that he used too much energy trying to pass new leader Sam Bird, and had to drop his pace in order to make the finish. He fell down the order to eventually finish ninth.
“I had one opportunity to pass, I used way too much energy on that lap and it spiralled from there. Obviously I’m extremely disappointed. It was a definite podium but I was hoping for the win today.
“Crossing the start/finish line on the last lap I was so low on energy, I was not amused at all. I had to creep around.
“I should learn a little bit today from the racing but performance-wise my approach and everything in terms of the race weekend doesn’t need to change. We’ve been fast all season, especially in qualifying.
“It’s the first day I’ve actually been able to fight for the win, so that’s a new experience for me in this formula and it’s a chess match the whole race.
“I thought we had checkmate to be honest but it wasn’t the case.”
