DS Techeetah's Andre Lotterer has said that his podium of mixed emotions at last weekend's Rome E-Prix only adds motivation to secure his maiden win in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.
On the streets of the Eternal City, Lotterer secured his maiden pole position in the all-electric single seater series, however, was unable to convert this into victory.
Retaining his lead on the opening lap of the race, Lotterer held first for the majority of the 45-minute + 1 lap E-Prix, however, was overtaken by Jaguar Racing's Mitch Evans with 15-minutes of racing remaining.
Despite using Attack Mode twice in the closing stages of the race in an attempt to close the gap to Evans and pass the Kiwi, Lotterer was unable to do so, and after reaching a critical point in his battery management, was forced to settle for second place.
While second marked Lotterer's first podium finish of the season, the triple Le Mans winner expressed an element of disappointment post-race, feeling that he was capable of taking the win while his ambition to stand on the top step of the podium only provides more motivation to achieve such a result:
“Mixed feelings," said Lotterer, reflecting on the Rome E-Prix. "I’ve got my first pole position in the bag and good points, but I really wanted to win and I think I had the car for it.
"We need to look at what happened as I started to struggle with the tyres a bit in the middle of the race so I couldn’t keep Mitch [Evans] behind me.
"It was a clean fight in the end and it was good to see that we had an energy management race.
"We’re in a good position so hopefully I can get my first win soon, I’m keener than ever for it now and I think it will be a good second part of the season.”
By taking pole position and second place, Lotterer secured a haul of 21 points at the seventh round of the season, with this result moving the driver into third in the Drivers' Championship with 62 points, three points adrift of Jerome d'Ambrosio who currently leads.
On the other side of the DS Techeetah garage, Jean-Eric Vergne failed to finish inside of the top 10, with a late-race penalty for overtaking Antonio Felix da Costa under Full Course Yellow conditions relegating the reigning champion to 14th.
Despite Vergne's point-less run in Rome, DS Techeetah has taken the lead in the Teams' Championship with 116 points, holding a slim advantage over Envision Virgin Racing who currently trail the Franco-Chinese team by seven points in second.
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