Mitch Evans’ pace encouraging but more needed

Kiwi driver Mitch Evans’ seventh placing at the Santiago e-Prix is an encouraging sign but another round in which the Jaguar racer will be left wondering what could have been.

Evans showed impressive race pace and his undoubted talent behind the wheel as he moved through the field having started off the back of the grid.

“I’m very happy to come away with points after a disappointing qualifying,” Evans said.

“I started at the back of the grid but had a good first lap by avoiding the carnage. I kept chipping away and finished seventh just seven seconds off the lead.

“The team did a great job today and I hope to reward them with more points in Mexico.”

To secure championship points from that starting position is no easy feat, which begs the question of what he could have achieved in Chile had he not botched his qualifying lap that saw him start at the back.

Evans was hurt badly in the first race of the season-opening double-header when his Panasonic Jaguar Racing team got their timing wrong and saw him disqualified from his qualifying lap. He bounced back by securing the team’s first ever podium in the second race of the weekend.

The 23-year-old was on track to record solid haul of points in Morocco last month at round three but a full course yellow at the wrong time ruined his race.

The Panasonic Jaguar Racing package is clearly competitive – they lie fourth in the team’s standings at present – but they need to iron out the mistakes that have kept them from really challenging at the pointy end of the standings.

The series moves to Mexico City next month – a happy hunting ground for Evans, who secured a fourth place finish in the race in the seriously depowered 2017 version of the Jaguar.

If both driver and team put it altogether a podium finish should be on the cards.