Renault e.dams driver Nico Prost was happy with his overall race, but his qualifying position left him frustrated as more could’ve been achieved given a better starting position.
Even though the Frenchman topped the opening qualifying group, he fell down the pecking order as track conditions improved, ending the session seventh overall, but did gain a place post-qualifying after teammate Sebastien Buemi was given a five-place grid penalty.
Prost successfully held off his teammate for the opening few laps, but the Swiss driver was on a mission and eventually overtook Prost, then disposed of Nelson Piquet Jr. moments later. Prost however, had difficulty following Buemi past Piquet Jr. The Frenchman did pass the Brazilian a few laps later and was promoted up to fourth after Jean-Eric Vergne served his drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
Successfully pulling away from his fellow Frenchman (Vergne) in the latter stages of the race, Prost was unable to catch the energy conserving Mahindra of Felix Rosenqvist before the chequered flag and had to settle for fourth place.
“I am happy about my race but a little frustrated that I wasn’t able to qualify higher,” said Prost. “I showed good pace in practice but Q1 is the most difficult qualifying session to deliver in, even if it was very close to Super Pole. I consumed a little bit too much energy in my out-lap, which meant I had to save a little bit in my first stint of the race. Nevertheless, I was able to overtake Daniel Abt and push strongly. Certainly, I would have preferred to have finished on the podium here – and in Hong Kong – but the most important thing is scoring points.”
