Panasonic Jaguar Racing leaves the Santiago E-prix happy, having achieved its objective of points and podiums, despite a technical hitch
Round 3 – Santiago
Mitch Evans secured third place in Santiago to return Panasonic Jaguar Racing to the podium after qualifying on pole position. His teammate, James Calado, finished eighth to secure double points for the British team in the sweltering heat of the Chilean capital.
New Zealander Evans put in a faultless qualifying performance with a clean sweep, topping both group and super pole sessions to secure his first pole position of the season and his second in Formula E.
The Kiwi led the pack off the line, but then anxiously encountered issues with receiving energy information. By the time the team had recovered the system issue, he had over-consumed on energy, and also had to manage his battery temperature. This energy deficit meant that Evans had to run a more conservative pace, which allowed Max Günther, on attack mode, to overtake, as did António Félix da Costa later in the race.
Despite this early issue, the team and Evans recovered well. They delivered a race strategy that allowed him to maintain third and take a well-deserved podium despite a challenging day in conditions that proved difficult for many teams and drivers.
Says Evans, “I was feeling pretty good after qualifying pole, but, unfortunately, we couldn’t convert this during the race – we faced some challenges that affected our energy management and this made it difficult to get into a rhythm.
“We will learn from today to make sure that next time we convert pole into top step of the podium.”
Meanwhile, in his first race at Santiago, British driver James Calado took the chequered flag with eighth, securing his second points win for the team. A difficult qualifying had left him in 18th, but Calado again converted the I-TYPE 4’s race pace into points and moved up ten positions during the 45-minute plus-one-lap race to score four valuable points.
Says James, “I had a compromising qualifying, but, from my cockpit the race was superb – the Jaguar I-TYPE 4 was great today. We gained plenty of places, ten in total. Eighth from 18th is a solid result and the E-Prix was also another invaluable opportunity to learn on the race track.
“Next time, I’ll look to improve on qualifying performance, but it was undoubtedly a positive weekend on my side and I’m looking forward to the next one. I’ll be on the podium soon; it’s only a matter of time.”
ABOVE: Mitch Evans celebrates his third place on the podium
