Jaguar Racing driver, Sam Bird, took points in Brooklyn after a challenging day for the British team. The Brit climbed an impressive eleven places, from twentieth to ninth finishing in the points and securing the fastest lap at the tenth round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
Bird had a challenging start to the day in Brooklyn. A crash into the wall in Free Practice 1 meant he was unable to finish the session or go out in Free Practice 2. With a chassis change required, the Jaguar Racing mechanics and engineers worked tirelessly and showed tremendous team work to make sure the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 was ready for qualifying, with just six seconds to spare before Parc Ferme. His run of bad luck continued with a crash in qualifying with Nissan driver, Oliver Rowland. Bird would line up on the grid in P20.
Kiwi, Mitch Evans, started the ABB New York City E-Prix in sixteenth after being at the mercy of group one for the seventeenth race in a row, but showed his racecraft by carving his way through the pack, gaining seven places. Evans demonstrated great pace off-the-line and moved from sixteenth into fourteenth in the first lap, overtaking Oliver Turvey and Sérgio Sette Câmara. He continued to show the speed and efficiency of the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 throughout the race, overtaking Norman Nato, Jake Dennis and Antonio Felix Da Costa and getting up into the points. Unfortunately an electrical issue caused Evans to retire with 27 minutes of the race remaining.
Mitch Evans is now joint fifth in the Drivers’ Standings while teammate Sam Bird is thirteenth. Bird will qualify in group three tomorrow, Evans remains in group one.
James Barclay, Team Director Jaguar Racing, said: “Today has been an extremely tough day for the team. Sam’s crash in Free Practice 1 resulted in a chassis change and required a huge effort from the team to get him into qualifying. I am very proud of each and every one one of the team and their sheer determination meant Sam was able to get out for qualifying. Sam repaid the team with an excellent drive in the race – working his way through the field, gaining eleven places and securing a points finish. He also demonstrated first-hand the pace of the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 by also securing the fastest lap. It was an unfortunate race for Mitch today, after another difficult group one qualifying, his seventeenth in a row. He was making great progress and on course for a very strong points finish before his electrical issue. We have immediately shifted our focus to tomorrow now and the great thing about double-headers is we’re able to reset and come back fighting tomorrow.”
Sam Bird, #10 Jaguar Racing driver, said: “Unfortunately I made a mistake this morning and I’ve massively paid for it and so did the team. However the team at Jaguar Racing have done the most incredible job. To even get me out today was just amazing and to have scored points for the team is a little bit of pay back. Sometimes in Formula E you have to get your elbows out and overtake and that’s what I did today. My plan is to put in a good lap in qualifying tomorrow and hopefully we can be fighting at the front.”
Mitch Evans, #20 Jaguar Racing driver, said: “We had a pretty solid start to our first race, here in New York. I was making my way through the pack and I got myself into the top ten. We unfortunately had an electrical issue which switched the car off and I was unable to reboot it so that was our race over. It’s a real shame as I probably would have got some more points today. Despite not scoring, I’m still in group one which means we’re going to have to fight hard to make our way into the points again tomorrow.”
The lights turn green for the eleventh round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship today, 11 July 2021 at 17:30 GMT.
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