Panasonic Jaguar Racing Team Director James Barclay believes that Jean-Eric Vergne's Turn 1 incident with Sam Bird ruined the team's race, robbing the British marque of a potential podium result.
In Marrakesh, Jaguar had a strong qualifying performance, with Mitch Evans securing a place in Super Pole, securing fifth on the grid while inaugural Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr lined up in ninth.
With clear pace in the team's I-TYPE 3 Gen2 challenger, which powered Evans fourth in Ad Diriyah, a strong result once more appeared to be on the cards for the team, however, a Turn 1 spin for Vergne compromised the team's race, with Evans dropping to 15th while Piquet fell to the rear of the field.
Despite picking up extensive damage to the rear of his car in Turn 1, Evans was able to fight back through the pack, taking ninth at the chequered flag to secure two points.
For Piquet, the Brazilian racer was unable to recover from his poor start, crossing the finishing line to a disappointing 14th place.
"We leave Marrakech frustrated," said Barclay. "We had a car capable of being on the podium; we were confident with Mitch’s pace, topping FP2.
"Unfortunately, Jean-Eric Vergne’s move into turn one was never really going to work. It ruined the race for us – for both cars.
"It is a real shame that someone else’s actions took us out of contention for the podium this time.
"We ran with good pace – Mitch moved forward and into the points despite a lot of damage to his car. It’s very positive to look at that forward momentum and energy that we can still carry despite the car damage.
"Going from fifth to 15th and then finally finishing ninth I think Mitch drove really well and the team recovered with a good strategy.
"Some days you just don’t have the luck and [Marrakesh] was one of those days. But the positive we take away is that we have a fast racecar and as a team we have podium pace."
Scoring 15 points over the first two races of the 2018/19 campaign, Jaguar Racing currently occupies sixth in the Teams' Standings, three points adrift of fifth-placed Nissan e.dams while trailing championship leaders DS Techeetah by 32 points.
Formula E's fifth season of competition will continue in Chile for the Santiago E-Prix on January 26.
Discussion about this post