Alexander Sims has been praised by his team after he drove a brilliant race in Mexico City to finish in fifth place.
The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver struggled with a dirty track in the first qualifying group meaning he lined up only eighteenth on the grid.
With his championship rivals qualifying far higher up the grid it looked as though Sims’ title challenge could take a severe hit, but he drove a brilliant race to stay in second place in the standings just one point behind the leader Mitch Evans.
It also meant that BMW stayed on top of the team’s championship, and afterwards his team boss Roger Griffiths praised the Brit for his ‘outstanding’ performance.
“After the poor qualifying result, we can be more than pleased with the fifth place for Alexander Sims,” Griffiths said.
“He gave an outstanding performance after starting the race so far back. Thanks to him, we have extended our lead in the team standings and we are very close to first place in the drivers’ championship.
“That is a very positive way to finish the weekend.”
Sims himself was delighted with the strong race pace he had in Mexico, and credited his end result to being able to save energy early on in the race.
“After this qualifying session, the race itself was a major challenge for us,” Sims commented. “However, we were able to save much more energy than our rivals in the first section of the race, which we were able to use later for the chase.
“I had a really strong car during the race. Overall, it is fantastic to finish a race day that had started in such a disappointing way with such a good result.”
