- Nelson Piquet Jr secures fourth position on his Jaguar debut
- Panasonic Jaguar Racing return to the city streets of Hong Kong
- The Jaguar I-TYPE 2 delivers improved efficiency and on track performance
Hong Kong, Saturday 1 December: Panasonic Jaguar Racing returned to the streets of Hong Kong for the opening race of season four of the FIA Formula E Championship with encouraging performances from both Nelson Piquet Jr. and Mitch Evans.
Against the iconic harbour front backdrop Nelson Piquet Jr., in his debut appearance for Jaguar, showed his experience and patience throughout a chaotic race. Following a challenging start from tenth, Piquet Jr. battled his way through the pack to secure fourth position - matching the team’s best ever result in Formula E.
The day started positively for the British team when Mitch Evans topped the second practice time sheets and a great turn of pace. The New Zealander encountered a timing issue in qualifying and had to start at the back of the grid. However, his pace bodes well for tomorrow’s second race of the double header weekend.
Panasonic Jaguar Racing have developed over 200 new parts on the Jaguar I-TYPE 2 and have been working tirelessly to improve the performance of the team. In just the team’s second season in Formula E, a strong first race finish is encouraging and motivating for the season ahead.
Nelson Piquet Jr., #3, “Firstly, I’m really happy and thank you to everyone from Panasonic Jaguar Racing for working so hard in the off season. It’s great to be back racing and to be competing in the points in our first race is encouraging. We are trying to keep realistic about our results as it’s a long season ahead but in general we did a great job. The team can take a lot of positives from today including the pace and efficiency of the I-TYPE 2. The race was quite hectic, so I’m very happy to have secured the result I did today, and look forward to getting back on track tomorrow.”
Mitch Evans, #20: “The day started really well, and it was great to finish top of the second practice session. There were some timing issues in qualifying which lead to starting the race in nineteenth position, and then the restart on the second lap, which meant today’s race was frustrating. The car feels good, and I was setting some good lap times so I’m hopeful for a better result tomorrow.”
James Barclay, Team Director Panasonic Jaguar Racing: “The key takeout is that we have a competitive car which is really positive news. Pre-season testing didn’t really give us enough of an indication, and what we have seen today is that we have a car that has got a solid pace and is also efficient during the race. For Nelson to finish fourth today was fantastic. Now we just need to continue to improve and be regularly competing for points.”
Fanboost is still open for tomorrow’s race. Vote for your favourite Panasonic Jaguar Racing driver to give them extra boost on the racetrack in Hong Kong. Tweet your boost using #MitchEvans or #NelsonPiquetJr and #FanBoost, or visit: http://fanboost.fiaformulae.com/
