Jean-Eric Vergne has described his victory in the Sanya ePrix as the ‘turning point’ of his season, as he looks to get his title bid back on track.
The reigning champion had yet to win a race this season before last weekend, despite having what was seen by many as one of the fastest cars on the grid.
That included three non-points finishes in a row, but having secured the win and fastest lap in China Vergne is now only eight points away from championship leader Antonio Felix da Costa.
Speaking afterwards Vergne said, “It was a pretty good race. Winning here in China as a Chinese team was something unbelievable, especially after the last 3 races that we had with no points.
“It’s always good to come back on top, it boosts the confidence of myself and the team, and puts us back in a good spot for the championship.
“I think this was the turning point of the season and now we need to just to keep on doing good work and have good races in the European half of the season.”
With team-mate Andre Lotterer finishing in fourth place in Sanya it means that DS Techeetah are now back in the hunt for the team’s title as well.
The top four teams are separated by just four points, with Techeetah sitting just behind Envision Virgin Racing, Mahindra Racing and Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler.
DS Performance Director Xavier Mestelan Pinon hinted that the team might have more performance in the coming races as well.
“This victory is a fantastic outcome for Jean-Éric and the team and it puts us in a very promising position for the rest of the championship,” he said.
“It is encouraging to get back in the title hunt and ahead of the next races in Rome and Paris, DS Performance will be running some development tests and further evolutions will be done to the DS E-TENSE FE19 in preparation for the first two races in Europe.”
