It was a London E-Prix to forget for Jaguar TCS Racing, especially with Mitch Evans‘ Drivers’ Championship hopes effectively going up in flames.
Evans recovered from fourteenth to fourth at the ExCeL Centre, before a technical issue with just a few minutes remaining saw the New Zealander retire from the race. It resulted in championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne inheriting fourth, and a thirty-six point lead in the standings.
On the other side of the garage, Sam Bird managed to rescue some points for the team, who remain fourth in Constructors’ Championship.
Team Principal James Barclay labelled Evans’ retirement as “cruel”, but insists the team will “fight until the very end.
“That was an unfortunate and cruel end to the race for Mitch and the team. He had shown phenomenal pace and race craft to fight all the way up to fourth and on the brink of a podium finish. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car with a technical issue and it’s a real shame that we couldn’t capitalise on the great position we had got ourselves into. Sam put in another fantastic race performance today to secure points.
“We’ve seen very strong race pace in the Jaguar I-TYPE 5 all weekend and we’ll make sure we bring this pace to the final two races in Seoul, to ensure we score as many points as we can and try to fight until the very end for the drivers’ title. We won’t give up until the very last lap and the final chequered flag of the season.”
