Renault e.dams admitted that they ‘messed up’ their weekend after they left Uruguay without gaining a single point.
The team had a perfect record in Punta Del Este with Sebastien Buemi having won both of the previous races held there, and the team were confident of securing another strong result.
But a poor qualifying saw Buemi start in seventh with Nico Prost starting towards the back of the grid after making contact with the wall.
Although Buemi made a strong start to his race he then crashed after going off line on to a dusty part of the track while trying to overtake Daniel Abt.
Formula E Programme Manager for Renault, Vincent Gaillardot bemoaned these mistakes, saying that his team missed out on a good opportunity.
“Punta del Este marked the halfway point of the season.
“After the series of podium finishes we began in Marrakech, we saw that this race, in which we’ve always been very quick in the past, was a good opportunity to get back in the running in the drivers’ classification.
“Unfortunately, we messed things up because of several small mistakes.”
Buemi himself was disappointed with his crash, but took solace in the fact that his car seemed fast enough to challenge for the podium.
“It was a bad day for me and I’m feeling very sorry for the team,” Buemi said.
“By clipping the wall I ruined our chances of a podium finish. We had a good enough car to achieve such a result as I was in front of Bird who finished third.
“Obviously I’m disappointed, but you can’t rerun the race and now we have to look to the next one. Although it wasn’t perhaps obvious in qualifying I think we were quick enough; that’s the positive aspect I’ll take away with me.”
The result meant that Buemi slipped to fifty-seven points behind championship leader Jean-Eric Vergne, with Renault now languishing in fifth in the team’s standings and looking unlikely to continue their winning run in the series.
