Evans Enjoys “Strongest Race” at Santiago

Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans thinks his drive from the back of the field to seventh position in Saturday’s Santiago E-Prix was the best of his ABB FIA Formula E Championship career to date.

Evans started from last place on the grid as a result of the Kiwi making a mistake in qualifying when he took a trip down an escape road after locking the brakes on his Jaguar I-Type.

“If you’d have said I would have even got some points today I would have absolutely taken that,” he told e-racing365. “I think it was my strongest race [in Formula E].

“I got a bit lucky at the start and I was in the right place at the right time in the first few corners and I made up a lot of positions and was 12th, which was fantastic.”

Not only did Evans start from last position on the grid but he also had to serve a time penalty at his car-swap pit stop.

This was because Jaguar elected for a precautionary change of the inverter on one of Evans’ cars but did not take one of the technical ‘jokers’ available to it.

This ensured that, as he started from the back of the grid, the subsequent penalty was converted from a grid drop to a ten-second penalty to be taken at his stop.

The initial plan for Jaguar was to stop at the end of the first lap but, after his meteoric start and the deployment of the safety car, the team elected to take the penalty at the latest point possible which was at the pit stop.

“When it came to the stop I had the penalty and I lost track position, but again I felt really strong in the second stint and I finished seven seconds off the lead,” said Evans.

“I struggled a little bit in Marrakesh with my race pace, so I’ve really worked hard on it and it has paid off a bit.

“The car is quick and I made life hard for us after qualifying unfortunately, but I am very encouraged with how everything is falling for us this year.”