Jerome d'Ambrosio believes that Mahindra Racing has to "start fighting for the championship" after his third place finish at the Ad Diriyah E-Prix.
D'Ambrosio raced for Jay Penske's Dragon Racing squad for the first generation of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship before moving to Mahindra Racing for Season Five, partnering Pascal Wehrlein.
For the first race of the season on the outskirts of Riyadh, the Belgian racer secured his second podium finish of 2018 after taking third place at the inaugural Zurich E-Prix in Season Four at the end of the European leg of the campaign.
Starting from sixth on the grid, d'Ambrosio drove an impressive race, clearing Stoffel Vandoorne, former team-mate Jose Maria Lopez and Sebastien Buemi to progress through the field while drive-through penalties for Jean-Eric Vergne and Andre Lotterer allowed the driver to move into the podium positions.
Running in second place, d'Ambrosio was one of several victims of the deployment of a late-race safety car, which meant that Vergne closed up to the back of the Belgian on the restart.
Having used his final deployment of Attack Mode moments before the momentary pause in racing, d'Ambrosio was left vulnerable on the restart, with Antonio Felix da Costa using the all-new power boost to extend his lead at the front of the field while Vergne it to take second place, thus demoting the Mahindra down to third place.
"It's an amazing way to start Season 5 and I think there are good days ahead of us if we keep working the way we do," said d'Ambrsio after securing his seventh podium finish in Formula E.
"I played it safe at the beginning to try to save some energy but stay close enough to fight for position. I've had a difficult couple of seasons so it's great to start this new relationship with the team in this way.
"Going forward, we have to start fighting for the championship. There are some tough competitors out there as Formula E is becoming one of the most competitive championships in the world," he added.
For Felix Rosenqvist who stood in for Wehrlein at the first race of the season, it was a difficult weekend, with the IndyCar-bound Swede waving goodbye to Formula E with a retirement:
"The car felt like it had a lot of speed but it was a bit tricky to drive; it wasn't one of those days when you felt really confident but we didn' have much practice so everything was a bit of a guess," he said.
"Then we had a mechanical failure in qualifying which caused us to have a big shunt and in the race the same thing happened but I was able to park the car.
"I'm sad I couldn't score any points for the team and it's a shame as I think we could have had a really good result today but it was fun to be back and I'm really happy for Jerome and for Mahindra on the podium today."
Dilbagh Gill, Mahindra Racing Team Principal, added: "I am absolutely thrilled for the whole team and Jerome – the perfect way to start a season is with a podium and this is the fourth season in a row that we have scored a podium in the season opener.
"I am really sorry that Felix suffered with a technical issue in both qualifying and the race as, without that, I am sure he would also have had a very good result.
"It's a good start for us and we will enjoy this, although our attentions are now firmly focused on the next race in Marrakesh and improving – we want both of our cars at the front as we showed this weekend we have the pace."
Discussion about this post