There were highs and lows for Amlin Aguri in the Putrajaya ePrix. Katherine Legge once again won the fan boost but early contact ended her chances of a good finish, while team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa managed to take eighth on his Formula E debut.
Pace that saw the team take the fastest lap in Beijing was on show once again, with Mark Preston, Amlin Aguri’s Team Principal, feeling there is a greater understanding of the Renault-Spark after the second race of the season.
“Antonio clipped the wall in qualifying and still ended up 12th fastest and felt that there was about 0.7-1.0 seconds he could have gained which would have put him properly in the top 10 so we felt quite confident we understand the car properly now from a performance point of view. That proved that our fastest lap in Beijing wasn’t a fluke!”
The pace was never on show for Legge as she collided and spun with Trulli GP’s Michela Cerutti. She was forced to crawl back to the pits and the time lost meant she could only muster a sixteenth place finish.
“Unfortunately at the start, our rear end problem sent me sideways and I hit the other car. It wasn’t intended and I feel terrible for ruining her (Cerutti) race,” said Legge. “I switched to the other car and continued, but we were a lap down so there wasn’t much we could do. The result wasn’t good but we got the FanBoost again and I always appreciate our fans.”
There was better news for her team-mate as da Costa recovered from a collision with the wall to qualifying twelfth, before continuing his fine form on the way to eighth place.
“Obviously, I am little bit disappointed as I was in front of Di Grassi and Buemi, who finished on the podium, before the pit stop when I lost time and positions,” he said. “We may have been able to get the podium finish so it’s disappointing. I hope we will have a better race in Uruguay, I’m looking forward to the race there.”
