Formula E

Steering rack failure to blame for Vergne crash

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Credit: Formula E

Jean-Eric Vergne has said that the crash that ended his Paris ePrix was a result of a steering rack failure.

The Frenchman was running in second place when his car seemed to struggle to turn in to the left hander at turn thirteen.

It caused him to run into the barrier on the exit of the turn, and ruined what until then had been a promising race for the Techeetah driver.

Speaking to Autosport afterwards he said that he had suspected that something might be about to go wrong after his steering became loose on the lap before.

“Halfway through the previous lap I suspect something broke because the steering was quite loose, the car was not really turning,” he said.

Had it not been for the failure, Vergne believes that he could have challenged Sebastien Buemi for the victory, saying that his car had felt faster than the Renault e.dams and that he had managed to save more energy than the Swiss driver.

“I had worked so hard the second stint to save a lot of energy, I had more than Seb, it’s not fair to say I would have won but I was waiting for my chance later in the stint to attack,” Vergne said.

“I knew I was faster, I could see he was lifting way earlier. I was preparing my attack for later on.

“The car was so much better, I was faster than him in the second stint considering how little energy I was consuming and unfortunately a failure broke all those chances.

“It’s a lot of hard work disappeared in an instant.”

The result eliminated Vergne’s already slim hopes that he could challenge for this year’s title.

Despite proving to be a match for Buemi several times this season he has struggled to turn it into results, with only two podiums and three retirements.

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