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Highs and lows for Mitch Evans in Hyderabad

Kiwi Formula e ace, Mitch Evans secured pole position for Jaguar TCS Racing only to have his chance of a race win dashed by his teammate, Sam Bird colliding with him mid race.

Feb 13, 2023

Evans impressed with a near perfect qualifying lap on the streets of Hyderabad, the second home for his Jaguar TCS racing team given the company’s Indian parent company, Tata.

Already 3 races into the Formula e racing calendar with the new Generation 3 cars and Kiwi, Mitch Evans was eager to improve his championship standings at Hyderabad. Hyderabad is a challenging street circuit offering high risk vs. reward aspects: The difference between a straight line through the chicane and the car bottoming out on the curb and potentially ending a race is literally millimetres. But Evans demonstrated a near perfect qualifying lap to secure his first pole position in the new Generation 3 Formula e machinery for Jaguar TCS Racing, maximising those moments where precision is required to extract the utmost speed from the car.

With 10 high level executives from Jaguar’s global parent organisation, Tata, looking on Mitch was on form. Though he said after his flying lap he felt he lost some pace in the slower section of the circuit and unloaded the rear of the car under braking costing him a tenth of a second, it was enough to get the job done and lock in P1 for the race.

Upon race start Mitch got away cleanly and led the pack comfortably for the first seven laps of the 32-lap race. Mitch opted to activate Attack Mode early, an extra 25kW power boost drivers are mandated to use at least once during the race, but Attack Mode does impact the energy consumption of the car. Comfortable in his pace, Mitch strategically slowed and gave away three places as part of a move to recoup energy over the remainder of the race.

The strategy was running smoothly and the Kiwi overtook the Sacha Fenestraz’s Nissan to move up to third place while Jaguar TCS Racing teammate, Sam Bird, battled in fifth. However on lap 13, Sam made a mistake which resulted in him tapping Fenestraz and crashing into teammate Mitch Evans, ultimately retiring both Jaguars from the race.

The disastrous result has relegated Evans to 12th in the standings for the Championship, had he converted his pole position to a win, he would’ve sat third in the championship.

Bird has apologised to Evans for the collision and while it stings, Evans takes the positives from Hyderabad and looks forward to the next round in South Africa in two weeks time.

“I held the lead from Pole position and the Jaguar I-TYPE 6 felt really good behind the wheel. We opted to go for an early Attack Mode to get the tow from the other cars. I was recovering well and up on energy from the cars ahead of me, but then Sam made a mistake and it took me out of the race. It wasn’t intentional but it is very frustrating. My season so far has been challenging but I’m looking forward to Cape Town.” Said Evans post race.

Thankfully there are 12 rounds remaining and time for Evans and his team to improve their points haul.

The next round is in Cape Town South Africa, 26 Jan at 3pm (NZ Time).