DS Virgin Racing moved up to third in the Teams’ Championship, thanks to Jean-Eric Vergne’s fifth place finish, whilst Sam Bird came home 11th.
Vergne started on pole position and spent the first half of his race battling with the Renault e.dams of Sebastien Buemi, although he damaged his front wing after two collisions with the bollards at the first chicane. Luckily for the Frenchmen the damage occurred just before he had to switch cars, so he did not suffer drastically during the rest of the race.
“We did great to get Pole Position,” Vergne said after the race. “And I think it goes to show just what a good job the team have done to improve the car but I also know I couldn’t have done better than 5th place today.
“I still gained valuable points for the team which has moved us to third in the championship and I’m really pleased with that. It’s what the team deserves.”
Bird will be feeling hard done by after he was shown the black and orange flag for the slight damage sustained to his front wing, which occurred in a collision the Daniel Abt. The team tried to argue their case, but the Brit had to dive into the pits before it was feasible to change to the second car.
“I’m really disappointed with this decision,” Bird said, talking about the decision to bring him into the pits. “I didn’t expect a black flag for such minimal damage, as I said on the radio I don’t believe the front end plate was that lose and that decision means it’s now extremely difficult for me to contend for the driver’s championship.”
Talking about the race overall, Bird added “I’m really pleased for the team. We’ve wanted to challenge Dragon Racing in the championship for a long time and although today was a disappointment for me, it was a triumph for the team. I will now be focusing on London which will no doubt be an epic finale to the season.”
