Heartbreak for Jaguar Racing Kiwi

Jaguar Racing finished runners-up in season seven of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship teams’ standings, with Kiwi driver Mitch Evans not even getting his car off the line during the final race in Berlin.

A technical fault meant Evans couldn’t start and he was shunted by Venturi driver Edoardo Mortara, so he finished fourth in the driver’s world championship with five podiums and just nine points shy of the winner in spite of being a front-runner by getting into the Super Pole from group one and qualifying third.

Evans was uninjured in the spectacular crash on the grid but Mortara is reported to have a microfracture to his fourth vertebra which won’t require surgery.

Mortara still finished second in the driver’s championship.

Evans’ teammate Sam Bird finished seventh in Berlin and the Briton was sixth in the championship with two wins, three podiums and a pole position.

 This season has been the most successful in Jaguar Racing’s five-year Formula E campaign with seven podiums, two wins, one pole position and 177 points scored.

The British team narrowly missed out on victory by just four points from Mercedes EQ.

“As a team, we put ourselves in a position to fight for both the drivers’ and teams’ championship this season and that’s what we’re most proud of,” Jaguar Racing team director James Barclay says.

“It was a massive shame for Mitch in the season finale, the team have worked so hard all season to put both of our drivers and Jaguar Racing into the championship fight.”

Congratulating Nyck de Vries and Mercedes for the win, Barclay says they fought hard to the very end.

“We’ll be back next year to fight for the title and to make it to the top step.”

Says Evans: “It was over before it even started so it was obviously not meant to be this year.

“I want to thank everyone who has put in so much hard work this year. We’ll come back fighting again next year.”

Season eight is due to start on January 28 and 29 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.