Mitch Evans has said that the execution of last weekend’s Santiago E-Prix fell out of Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s hands after the British marque encountered system issues.
After a slow start to the Season 6 campaign in Diriyah last November, Evans delivered the British Jaguar squad with pole position for the third race of the season, taking four bonus points by also emerging as the fastest runner of the group qualifying stages.
Securing a clean start from the front row, Evans held the lead of the Santiago E-Prix, however, used both of his activations of Attack Mode within the first third of the 45-minute + 1 lap affair, leaving a base 200kW power usage for the remainder of the race.
Facing a handful of challenges that impacted the energy management of his I-TYPE 4, Evans struggled for rhythm and consistency, dropping back to finish third when overtaken by eventual race winner Maximilian Guenther and runner-up Antonio Felix da Costa.
“The execution of the race sort of slipped out of our hands,” said Evans following the race in the Chilean capital. “It was a bit of a strange one.
“Looking at the positives we have got some good points and a podium after having a bad start to the season. Starting from pole I wanted to walk away with a win, but we clearly still have work to do.”
Detailing the start to his E-Prix, Evans outlined the issues he faced:
“In qualifying we had some good speed and I just could not keep up and convert that into race pace. For the first three laps I had some system issues where I was not getting any readings.
“I am a bit disappointed obviously as when you start the race in first place you want to end there. Full credit to these guys [Guenther and da Costa], they were super quick.
“The main objective was points and podiums and we achieved that this weekend so we can leave Santiago happy,” he added. “During the next few weeks we will learn from [the race] to make sure next time we convert P1 qualifying into top step of the podium.”
Returning to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Formula E will next race in Mexico City on February 15, supported by the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY.
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