Vergne scores first points for Virgin as Bird retires

Jean-Eric Vergne scored his first points for DS Virgin Racing in Punta del Este with a 7th place finish on his recovery drive from the back of the grid. He only did one lap in qualifying, as opposed to the standard 170kW warm-up lap followed by a full power lap, which was not counted as he cut the turns 5/6 chicane and was then blocked by Nathanael Berthon.

A strong first stint saw him move up the field. In the second stint, aided by Fan Boost, he passed Stephane Sarrazin to make it into the points, and then had a battle with Nelson Piquet Jr. for 8th place on the penultimate lap. The pair made contact at the turn 8/9 hairpin and Piquet then hit the wall on the entry to turn 10 which saw him retire from the race. Vergne then made up another place on Daniel Abt, who was running critically low on energy, on the final lap.

“I’m really pleased with my race and don’t think it could have gone much better after starting at the back of the grid,” Vergne said, “I drove hard and had a lot of fun with what was in front of me. It was a great effort from the team.

“I’d also like to say a special thank you to all the fans that helped me win Fan Boost, which made a real difference during the race.”

Sam Bird was continuing his strong form from his Putrajaya podium to be battling at the head of the field. He qualified 3rd and immediately made up a place on Loic Duval at the start for 2nd. He was later battling the two Dragon cars for the final podium position when a battery issue forced him to retire.

After the race, Bird said: “In the first half of the race, things felt really good and it was going really well. We showed a good turn of pace and I think there’s lots of positive signs to suggest that we can be challenging again in Buenos Aires.

“Like in Malaysia, I must give a lot of credit to the team, who put in a huge amount of work to repair the car between free practice one and the race after I hit the wall.”

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