Sebastien Buemi has said that he could have won this year’s title after a strong finish in New York saw him take second place in the driver’s standings.
A poor start to the season saw him take only fourteen points in the first five races, but the Nissan e.dams driver then went on to take four podiums in the last four races, including Nissan’s first victory on Saturday.
It saw him complete a remarkable turnaround to finish as runner-up to Jean-Eric Vergne, sitting seventeen points behind him.
And speaking afterwards in the press conference Buemi said he could have taken the title from Vergne had it not been for a puncture he suffered while leading the Paris ePrix in April.
During the race his rear tyre was tagged by Robin Frijns, taking out the valve and causing a slow puncture that saw the Swiss racer drop out of the points and finish in fifteenth.
While he believed the incident as a racing incident, he was still left wondering what could have been.
“If somebody would have told me after the Paris that I would have finished second in the championship I wouldn’t have believed them,” Buemi said afterwards. “I’m really happy to grab four podiums in a row and finish runner-up in the points.
“I told Robin (Frijns) in the press conference that he hadn’t touched me and punctured my tire while I was leading that race in Paris I could have won the championship. It is motorsport, and those things happen.”
Despite Buemi’s efforts, his team did end up losing the third place spot they occupied going into the New York ePrix weekend, as they fell behind Envision Virgin Racing by a single point.
However Buemi thought the team had a lot to be proud of, saying “I’m a little bit sad for Nissan e.dams that we missed out on finishing third in the team’s championship by only a single point.
“But for the first season for Nissan, we had wins, podiums, pole positions – we have to be proud of that.”