It was a case of third time lucky for Trulli GP, as the Punta del Este ePrix streets saw Jarno Trulli take the team’s first points, while team-mate Michela Cerutti produced her best drive of the season on the way to twelfth.
It’s some turnaround for Trulli GP who have had a challenging start to life in Formula E. Beginning the season at the Beijing ePrix, Trulli retired while Cerutti took a lowly fourteenth. Results were no better at the Putrajaya ePrix as it was Cerutti’s turn to retire and Trulli took a disappointing seventeenth.
It was clear things were on the up early on in Uruguay. Trulli took seventh in the first practice session, the best result from the two sessions for either driver. Come qualifying and consistency was key as Trulli once again took seventh, the team’s best qualifying result.
“It was a reasonably good qualifying session for me,” reflected Trulli. “The car was well balanced, but I still didn’t have a good feeling about the brakes. Due to this issue, I wasn’t confident enough to push harder to get a faster time.”
For Cerutti, the day was a difficult one. Struggling in the practice sessions, the troubles continued into qualifying as she posted a time good enough for seventeenth.
“Well, today has been a difficult day for me so far,” she said. “I’m struggling a lot to get a good feeling with the track and the car. There is a big gap that we are trying to close but it not easy at the moment.”
The Italian would save best for last, performing admirably in the Punta del Este ePrix. She drove assuredly, with the benefit of a slick pit stop, looking a good bet to sneak a tenth place finish before a drive through penalty late on in the race ended her hopes of points. Not to be let down, the Italian had a decent enough recovery drive on the way to twelfth at the flag.
“Despite issues in the morning and starting in P16, I had a good race,” she said. “After a quick pit stop I re-entered the race P13 and got up to P11. Unfortunately, I received a drive-through penalty as I hit the brakes too late in the pit entry. It’s my mistake and it won’t happen again. In the end, I was up nosing on the top 10 and finished 12th, which is my best result in Formula E so far.”
Team-mate Trulli was pushing for his best result as well as he diced with the leading pack, most notably with Andretti’s Matthew Brabham. The ex-F1 man was able to hold off the advances of Virgin Racing’s Jaime Alguersuari and the recovering Bruno Senna of Mahindra Racing to take his best result of the season.
“Today we finally scored our first points, which is very nice for the team,” he said. “To score the points is promising, and I believe that in Malaysia we already showed this potential. The race was slightly different here in Punta Del Este, but again we stayed with the top group and now we have to continue to perform this way and avoid little mistakes.”
The result lifts Trulli GP to eighth in the standings with twelve points, while Trulli sits eleventh in the driver standings and Cerutti is down in 22nd.
