Jean-Eric Vergne has criticised Nelson Piquet Jnr after the crash that ended his Monaco ePrix.
Vergne claims he had “clearly” taken third position from Piquet as the pair came through the swimming pool complex, but Piquet gave him no choice but to hit the wall. He also criticised the Brazilian’s method of defence before the incident.
“I tried many times to overtake Piquet, but he would just bump into me to stop me coming through,” Vergne told Formula E Zone. “So this time I tried to out brake him by braking really late for the corner, so I was clearly in front of him, and I thought the move was made.
“However, he stayed in the middle of the corner and hit me twice quite hard which put me even more offline and we went into the wall.”
The incident ended Vergne’s race as he hit the harbour-side wall, bringing out the safety car. Piquet managed to return to the pits and swap to his second car. He lost third position to Mahindra’s Nick Heidfeld, but crossed the line fourth.
Neither driver received a penalty for the crash, which Piquet called a racing incident.
There could still be a lasting effect on Vergne’s season, though. The Techeetah driver revealed he needed an x-ray to check nothing was broken in his hand.
