Antonio Felix da Costa’s spectacular overtaking maneuver to take the Cape Town E-Prix is still giving plenty to talk about. Jean-Eric Vergne, “victim” of the move, offered his thoughts on the matter.
“It was close. But there are some risks I’m willing to take and some I’m not. I think in the championship view, I want to take the points for second place rather than a crash,” he said.
The move made by da Costa is one of the best the ABB FIA Formula E ABB World Championship has ever seen, with the driver pushing his Porsche into first place through the intense combinations of Turns 7, 8 and 9 that had already seen three crashes over the weekend.
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Surprised by the Maneuver
Such was the Porsche racer’s audacity, Vergne also confessed that he didn’t see it in his mirrors before the move. “I really didn’t see it coming. So, well done to him. He used that to his advantage. I’m a little frustrated, of course.”
However, he assured that at the end of the championship he will be happy with the result of the race held in South African territory. “Second place is good. These are important points we have gained in the fight for the championship.”
Vergne, who won Round 4 in Hyderabad earlier this month, remains third in the Drivers’ standings after a slow start to Season 9.
With Pascal Wehrlein on 80 points after a dominant start to the new Gen3 season and Jake Dennis on 62 points after a win in Mexico and two second-place finishes in the Diriyah double-header, Vergne remains third, but moves from 31 points post-Hyderabad to 50 units after Cape Town.
Porsche‘s Wehrlein, failed to finish the South African race after crashing into the rear of Sebastien Buemi’s Envision Racing on the first lap. Dennis also recorded another fatal finish in his Andretti Avalanche after receiving a drive-through penalty for “failing to respect minimum tire pressure.”
The Briton is still clinging on to second place in the Drivers’ World Championship despite being unable to score points since Diriyah.
