Felix Rosenqvist says he thinks he could have finished in the top three in the Punta Del Este ePrix, were it not for an issue with his car that meant he didn’t know how much energy he needed to save.
The Mahindra Racing driver drove impressively through the field from fourteenth to finish in fifth, but he felt that more was possible.
The Swede said that his ‘lap beacon’ – an audio indicator which tells the drivers when to lift off – fell out of sync meaning it was giving incorrect information.
As such the Swede wasn’t sure how much energy he needed to save, and this led to him falling behind the Panasonic Jaguar Racing of Mitch Evans, and meant he wasn’t able to catch the top three.
Speaking afterwards he said, “It was a tough, but fun race. Average start, I kept myself out of trouble. From initially not being too quick, we improved across the race and got really fast.
“Great pitstop, second stint was really good, Mitch was behind me and we were really quick though the field. My lap beacon fell off, so I didn’t know how much energy to save or use during a lap so my lap indications were wrong and I was a bit lost.
“We did manage to recover in the end because we had a lot more energy. It was a potential podium, and we finished P5; but I’m still confident of the strong and quick car that we have.”
The issue cost Rosenqvist precious points in the driver’s championship as Jean-Eric Vergne’s victory now means that he is thirty points behind the Frenchman.
However he fared better than his team-mate Nick Heidfeld who for the second race running was forced to retire with a technical issue.
His car came to a halt on the second lap after a technical system error shut down the car.
