Andre Lotterer has described his opening weekend in the Formula E championship as a ‘baptism of fire’.
The Techeetah driver’s career in the all-electric championship couldn’t have got off to a worse start after he blocked the track following a crash in the first race, and brought out a red flag.
He got going again, but received several race penalties and was eventually disqualified after leaving his car in an unsafe mode in parc ferme.
The second race wasn’t much better as he qualified poorly, and crashed on the last corner of the last lap while trying to avoid Nelson Piquet Jr’s slowing car.
He did say that he had learnt a lot from the experience though, and was particularly surprised by the close racing.
Lotterer said, “What a baptism of fire. Starting from scratch in a new series is never easy, but I’ve never experienced anything like Formula E before.
“The close racing is unbelievable, as you try to overtake, you’ve got someone lurking behind to take you on. I’ve learnt tons over the weekend and it feels really good to have a full race weekend under my belt.”
“In terms of development, there’s a lot to find. I need to qualify better, yesterday was a good start to grid in P12, but today I just couldn’t get it together in the third sector.
“I’ve kept good pace throughout the weekend and I’ve hit all the energy targets so that is positive.
Speaking about the crash at the end of the second race, Lotterer said that he was surprised by Piquet’s sudden drop in speed.
“Unfortunately, Nelson must have run out of battery as we crossed the line, as all of a sudden, he stopped in front of me and I had to get out of the racing line to avoid him.
“With the dirty track, there was no chance to recover and I went straight into the wall. I’m ok but the car is in a pretty bad shape and we are looking into how much damage the crash has caused.”
