Mitch Evans believes the lack of time loss associated with Attack Mode at the Bern E-Prix saved Jean-Eric Vergne, with the Frenchman holding on to take a third win of Season 5.
The Attack Zone at the Bern Street Circuit was situated on a straight in between Turns 8 and 9, with drivers having to drive off the racing line losing little, if any, time at all to arm and deploy Attack Mode, gaining a 25kW, four-minute power boost as a result.
At the 11th race of the 2018/19 campaign, Evans challenged Vergne throughout, the Kiwi using Attack Mode twice in an attempt to pass the reigning champion with 26 minutes and 17 minutes of racing remaining.
Failing to overtake on the subsequent lap, the Jaguar Racing driver's deployment of the device was in vain, with Vergne using the device to defend on the subsequent laps.
Unable to overtake Vergne, Evans took the chequered flag in second place only 0.160s adrift of the win to bank 18 points and move into third place in the Drivers' Championship, still standing a mathematical chance of taking the title in New York next month.
Reflecting on the inaugural Bern E-Prix, Evans believed that the lack of time loss when activating Attack Mode saved Vergne from a potential overtake while the New Zealander found overtaking challenging overall:
"[Overtaking] was actually harder than I expected," said Evans post-race. "I was hoping it would be a bit of a slam dunk move when I had Attack Mode and he [Vergne] didn’t but it didn’t really materialise.
"It was close. I got a good overlap but the corners where I was getting the overlap it would have been quite risky to hang it around the outside at Turn 3 or other places and he [Vergne] was defending well. He’s a good defender and it would have taken a big risk to try and get by.
"I think the thing that really hurt me was that there was no time loss to activate Attack Mode and I think that saved him [Vergne]. I felt extremely fast and I want to thank everyone in the team for giving me a great race car and it feels great to be on the podium.
"I will definitely take this with both hands and all of the points that come with it. It was a great race and great for everyone watching as well which is obviously important."
