Jean-Eric Vergne was left "very happy" with the performance of Techeetah after finishing third at last weekend's Berlin E-Prix in which he extended his championship lead over DS Virgin Racing's Sam Bird.
Heading to the ninth round of Season Four in the German capital, both Vergne and Techeetah anticipated having a difficult weekend at the Flughafen Tempelhof circuit, with the team's independent status meaning that they were at a disadvantage due to the limited testing that they receive, thus leading to a lack of data.
Despite predicting a poor result, the Chinese outfit where left encouraged on Saturday morning, with Vergne topping free practice two with the fastest time before securing a spot in the Super Pole shootout, obtaining third on the grid in qualifying for the race that would be held on Saturday evening.
In the race, Vergne had a poor start, being overtaken by Dragon Racing's Jerome d'Ambrosio although the championship leader was able to quickly regain this position on lap 2 to move into the podium positions.
An overtake from Lucas di Grassi on lap 11 demoted Vergne to fourth before a later overtake from Sebastien Buemi dropped him to fifth place.
Reluctant to equal is worst finishing position of the 2017/18 season, Vergne regained fourth from Buemi some laps later before pitting on lap 23 where he again dropped back behind the Swiss racer after having a marginally slower pit stop.
After closing up on the back of NIO's Oliver Turvey, Vergne found a way past both Buemi and the third-placed Brit to regain a podium place, finishing in the position after being unable to challenge Daniel Abt or di Grassi who secured a 1-2 finish for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler.
“Well done to the Audi guys and Daniel [Abt], I know how it feels [to win] at home – it’s pretty amazing so I’m happy for him," said Vergne post-race.
"I think I’m going to change my nationality at every race because it seems at every home race a driver wins, so in Zurich I’m going to be Swiss and in New York, American!
"The race went very well, I took it easy, I knew from this morning the Audi guys were out of reach. When Lucas [di Grassi] was behind I didn’t even look, I let him by.
"Then I passed [Sebastien] Buemi and he was quite aggressive in closing the door sometimes. The pit stop wasn’t bad, I lost a position to Buemi so I had to pass him again.
"Overall I’m extremely happy, last year this was our worst track performance-wise and I’m very happy with the job the team has done,” he concluded.
Third place in Berlin allowed Vergne to extend his lead at the top of the Drivers' Championship, meaning that he now holds a 40 point advantage over DS Virgin Racing's Bird.
With three races remaining in Season Four, Vergne could secure the championship at next month's inaugural Zurich E-Prix if he is able to outscore Bird by 18 points.
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