Mitch Evans was on the verge of closing the gap to Stoffel Vandoorne in the Drivers’ Championship, until the New Zealander suffered heartbreak at the London E-Prix.
The Jaguar TCS Racing driver had worked his way up from fourteenth-place to fourth, after overtaking at a circuit where it was supposedly impossible to do so. Whilst Evans wasn’t set to close the gap by much as championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne was in fifth, it would’ve been something beneficial to take into the season finale.
Instead, Evans saw the gap increase to thirty-six points, after his car shut down with just two minutes remaining. Fans watched on as Evans’ car crawled to a halt, as Vandoorne inherited fourth-place and a healthy championship lead.
Evans was understandably distraught after the race, where he struggled to find the words to explain his Sunday afternoon.
“It’s hard to put this one into words. It was a huge race after a difficult qualifying and we were able to put ourselves P4 after starting P14. It was a faultless race, really aggressive with the overtaking and a perfect strategy from the team with my ATTACK MODES. We were set to score a lot of points but we had a technical issue with a few laps to go, which is heartbreaking for everyone in the team. Stoffel (Vandoorne) now has quite a large points advantage but we’re not giving up.”
“We’ll keep fighting until the very end” – Sam Bird
It was a difficult end to a disappointing home weekend for Sam Bird, who after retiring from Race One on the opening lap, managed to finish eighth in Race Two.
Bird drove brilliantly on Sunday, making his way up to eighth having started in the bottom half of the grid. Bird somehow managed to make it to the end of the race, something which many were amazed by a few hours after the E-Prix had finished. Jaguar announced that Bird had been sent to hospital for an X-ray, which revealed that on the opening lap of the second race Bird fractured his left hand.
Bird was delighted to have managed to score some points, on what was a difficult weekend for himself and the team.
“It’s been a hard day here in London for the team. We didn’t qualify where we wanted to, but I managed to climb back into the points and secure eighth place. We’re looking forward to our inaugural race in South Korea and we’ll keep fighting until the very end to finish on a high.”
