Monaco ePrix – Jean-Eric Vergne and Nelson Piquet Jr. are at odds over who was at fault for their collision during the race.
Approaching the pit stop window, Vergne attempted a pass around the outside of the Turn 3 hairpin which leads back onto the Grand Prix circuit at the Harbour Chicane, a move which he failed to pull off the previous lap.
The two leaned on each other at the apex and on the exit, but a snap of oversteer from the NextEV pushed Vergne into the barrier, leaving him out of the race.
“I passed him. My car was in front of him. He didn’t brake, he used me twice to rotate his car,” Vergne said.
“He was bumping into me and was next to me on the exit and then he just brought me to the outside wall.
“I was braking and turning but his car was doing the opposite of what I was doing.”
The incident was looked at by the stewards but no investigation was made, much to Vergne’s surprise:
“I would believe something would happen otherwise it means that anytime you have someone alongside him you can bring him into the wall.”
Piquet has a different view of the incident, and was not surprised by a lack of involvement by the stewards:
“It was a racing incident overall. He was really aggressive trying to pass me on the outside in a place where it would be very easy to hold position,” he said.
“He tried really hard, like it was a last lap situation. We went tight, I went back on the throttle, the car wiggled and it touched him.
“That section of the track just closes in to us, it’s not like I pushed him out. I just went straight and the track just came to us with nowhere to go, we were stuck to each other anyway.”
He added that had Vergne been more patient, he would most likely have passed him later in the race or during the pit stops.
“I admire his passion of wanting to pass and I think he would have passed me either way in the pit stops.
“He had three per cent more energy than me, so if he was a bit more patient he could have passed me later on.”
The incident, however, did leave Vergne with an injured right hand which he needed to go to the medical centre for, leaving with him hand in a splint.
“I hurt my hand in the crash. It’s not very good, otherwise I would not have this [splint]. I’m in pain,” he said.
He added that he was unsure if the injury would prevent him from taking part in his home race in Paris this weekend.
