- Mitch Evans puts Jaguar back on the podium at the opening round of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in the Jaguar I‑TYPE 5
- Evans secured 15 points on the streets of Diriyah, Saudi Arabia at Formula E’s first ever night race
- Sam Bird’s strong debut with Jaguar Racing before a collision with Alex Lynn caused an early retirement
- Jaguar Racing sits third in the ABB FIA Formula E teams’ championship
- The lights turn green for the second night race of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship tomorrow, 27 February 2021 at 20:00 AET
The Kiwi had a great start to the race, moving from sixth to fifth off the line. He moved into fourth position after Eduardo Mortara took ATTACK MODE and managed to hold onto the position by overtaking Pascal Werhlein. With two minutes to go before the end of the race, Evans made a decisive overtake on Rene Rast to secure a solid third and 15 points for the British team.
After qualifying eighth, Sam had a great start to the race and was showing very strong pace. With 25 minutes left of the race Bird had a collision with Mahindra’s Alex Lynn which resulted in the Jaguar I‑TYPE 5 needing to pit. Bird returned to track in P23 before the team decided to retire the racecar ahead of round 2 tomorrow.
PODIUM FINISH FOR MITCH EVANS & JAGUAR RACING UNDER THE LIGHTS AT THE DIRIYAH E-PRIX
JAGUAR RACING - DIRIYAH E-PRIX
PODIUM FINISH FOR MITCH EVANS & JAGUAR RACING UNDER THE LIGHTS AT THE DIRIYAH E-PRIX
Fantastic to start the year with a podium for all the team at Jaguar Racing ‑ a great podium for Mitch in third. He drove a really strong race today and the team delivered a fantastic strategy to get him onto the podium. The car looked really fast in race trim which is really exciting as it shows the potential is there. Mitch delivered an extremely polished performance with some fantastic over‑taking moves. He took his opportunities and he made the moves stick. I’m really proud of all the hard work the team have put in and to come away with a podium in the first race shows that we’ve got a really competitive racecar in the Jaguar I‑TYPE 5. We’re disappointed with how the race ended for Sam ‑ he was looking really strong, made some great overtakes and was moving into a very good position to attack the end of the race. We’ll take a lot of learning from today and we’ll push for more points tomorrow.
James Barclay
Team Director, Jaguar Racing
A great start to our world championship campaign. I got a position at the start which was great. The long safety cars made it a little nervewracking as I had to save my ATTACK MODEs until the end of the race. It was a shame as I hoped we could have a double points finish for Jaguar Racing. Overall it was a great result for the team, I’m very proud and we really deserve a result like this. They’ve worked so hard and we’re looking forward to tomorrow. Racing under the lights for the first time was also amazing, it felt great from the cockpit with the halo illuminated and I really hope the fans at home enjoyed it too.
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing driver, #20
The first half of the race was going really well, I was saving a lot of energy and making my way up through the pack with some decent moves. I’m gutted that the first race of the season ended like this but we look at the negatives, take them and try and improve them. It’s amazing that Mitch secured a podium today, it’s great for the team and we know that the Jaguar is fast. There are still a lot of positives to take away from this evening and we’ll now work on getting ready for tomorrow.
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing driver, #10
JAGUAR RACING - DIRIYAH E-PRIX
Lights go green tomorrow at 20:00 (AST) for race two of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
