Mixed fortunes at Aguri

Antonio Felix da Costa continued to impress in the Aguri running Season One technology. Having qualified 8th on the grid, his only challenge came from Bruno Senna who passed him at the start as the Brazilian was starting on the cleaner side of the grid. da Costa made up the position, and was continued issue-free for the remainder of the race.

“This is probably where we should be expecting to finish. Perhaps we’ve even gone beyond our expectations,” da Costa said, “We mixed it with new tech teams and were the strongest of the runners with the season one drivetrain, which is fantastic.

“I think we’re maximising our package; this track was always going to be difficult for us so I’m pleased with more points. We’ve now got a test day tomorrow, so hopefully we can find some more improvements and keep moving forwards, step-by-step.”

Nathanael Berthon, on the other hand, had mechanical issues in practice which put him on the back foot. He qualified 14th, and was running a lowly race when he was spun by Jean-Eric Vergne at the final corner, which saw the Frenchman have to make a three-point turn to continue.

“We had so many problems this weekend, from throttles, to batteries, to inverters”, he said, “It was massively frustrating for all of us, but sometimes luck doesn’t go your way. Hopefully that will change soon.

“I’m convinced that we could have scored points in the race with a clean run, but I was pushed off by Vergne and that ruined it. I have some work to do on my driving style because Formula E is so specialised but, with more mileage, I’m convinced I can find big improvements. Tomorrow’s test is extremely important for all of us.”

Team Principal Mark Preston said: “At the beginning of the year we said we’d like to be qualifying in the top 10, and finishing in the top six. Antonio achieved that today. To take points at a circuit that didn’t suit us so well is especially encouraging; the next race in Buenos Aires should be much better for us.

“Nat had a very difficult weekend, with bad luck from every direction and it’s hard to recover when you’re on the back foot from the off. Tomorrow we can focus on finding more improvements in testing.”

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