Mitch Evans says he was ‘gutted’ to miss out on his and Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s first ever victory in at the Rome ePrix.
The New Zealander was putting race leader Sam Bird under severe pressure in the closing laps but was forced to drop back after he ended going over his energy usage targets.
He ended up crawling over the line in ninth place in a bid to avoid going over his usable energy limit, and afterwards he was frustrated as he felt that a far better result was on the cards.
Evans said, “Qualifying was good but I’m gutted as we had a chance to win today.
“Coming away with points for the team is positive but we could have had a lot more which is hard to take. I had my eyes on the prize but well done to Sam (Bird). Hopefully we can be fighting for a podium in Paris.”
The race wasn’t much better for his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr, who was forced to retire when his seat belt wasn’t properly secured after the pit stops.
“I was confident in the race as we know we have pace and efficiency but today wasn’t our day,” Piquet said afterwards. “I had a seat belt issue in the pit lane so I had to stop to put them back on which took too much time.”
