Faraday Future Dragon Racing’s Loic Duval and Jerome d’Ambrosio’s late race battle ignited tension within the team immediately after the race.
D’Ambrosio started the race in ninth position and Duval started five places further back, however, the two converged in the closing stages of the race to battle it out for sixth place.
The Frenchman pulled a brave move on his teammate which resulted in light contact between the pair and allowed Daniel Abt to slip between them causing d’Ambrosio to fall to eighth place. The Belgian’s anger was quite evident after the race.
“I was sixth with two laps to go and there is no reason to then finish eighth,” he said. “This is especially as the guys were on the radio in the last five laps saying just bring it home and take it easy.
“They said the same to Loic and then it all goes crazy with two laps to go. That’s a little bit of a pity. A misunderstanding or whatever, I just don’t know.”
There were also reports of an angry exchange between d’Ambrosio and Duval’s engineer Fabrice Roussel, as the Belgian believed he had been unfairly cheated out of sixth place.
Duval, who enjoyed his best finish of the season, was adamant that his driving was firm but fair.
“As you have seen in the past though we have had fights and most of the time I was really gentle,” said Duval. “This weekend I was in this position where I was competitive and I had less energy available so I fought.
“I always gave the room but for sure I won’t make it easy to pass. I was able to come back on the energy level, at the end I was able to attack.”
This marks the team’s first double points finish of the season and lifts them to seventh in the Teams’ Championship above their American rivals, Andretti Autosport.
