Andre Lotterer has urged his team to look into what happened with his tyres during the Rome ePrix as he said that they were the reason he lost the lead of the race.
Lotterer led the race from pole but was unable to pull a gap to the Panasonic Jaguar Racing car of Mitch Evans behind him.
Evans was eventually able to pass Lotterer with a robust move into the chicane after the New Zealander had activated his power boost.
But Lotterer was unable to hit back when he used his fanboost on the next lap, meaning that his search for a debut win in the series continued.
Afterwards he was magnanimous in defeat, but said that he had been unable to keep Evans behind him as he was struggling to get his tyres to work as he wanted them to.
“I’ve got my first pole position in the bag and good points, but I really wanted to win and I think I had the car for it,” Lotterer said.
“So, we need to look at what happened as I started to struggle with the tyres a bit in the middle of the race so I couldn’t keep Mitch behind me.
“It was a clean fight in the end and it was good to see that we had an energy management race today.
“We’re in a good position so hopefully I can get my first win soon, I’m keener than ever for it now and I think it will be a good second part of the season.”
Team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was also left disappointed as he finished outside of the points after receiving a time penalty following the checkered flag.
The reigning champion bizarrely chose to overtake Antonio Felix da Costa under a full course yellow, and failed to hand the place back after racing resumed.
Later he complained about receiving the penalty however, especially as he would have been leading the championship had he been allowed to keep his seventh place finish.
Vergne said, “It was a good recovery and I managed to secure the fastest lap, but then I got a penalty which put me out of the points.
“I should have been leading the championship after today, but we have plenty of races to go and we still had a very good race with André who finished second with strong points for the team.”
As it is DS Techeetah currently lead the team’s championship after the Rome ePrix, holding a seven point lead over Envision Virgin Racing.
