Mitch Evans says his impressive drive from the back of the grid to sixth place in the Marrakesh ePrix will send a strong message to the other drivers in Formula E about his competitiveness.
The Panasonic Jaguar Racing driver started dead last on the grid after his team sent him out too late to set a competitive lap in qualifying.
But despite a race of little incident and no safety cars or yellow flags, Evans managed to make up eighteen places and set the fastest lap on the way.
Although he lost the lead of the driver’s championship, his nine point haul means he stays in second, and Evans himself believes he’s sent a strong message to his competitors.
Speaking afterwards he said, “A massive race. I managed to gain 18 places to finish P6 from the back of the grid and achieve fastest lap so I will take that result with open arms.
“After an unfortunate qualifying the priority in the race was damage limitation during the E-Prix and a huge thanks for the team for a great strategy in the race.
“I wanted to send a strong message to the rest of the field and I believe this performance does that.”
His team boss James Barclay was also full of praise for the drive, describing it was an ‘amazing’ performance – although he did cede that it didn’t quite make up for the team’s qualifying error.
“After a long race with no safety cars or yellow flags, the performance from Mitch and the team to make up 18 positions and finish strongly in the points was very impressive,” Barclay said.
“It’s very difficult to come through the field without gaining advantage from those factors and so overall an amazing race for Mitch and the team.
“We also scored important points with fastest lap but it doesn’t fully make up for the lost opportunity in qualifying where we had the quickest car.”
