Mitch Evans claims second in Formula E championship

Following a valiant final effort on the streets of Seoul in South Korea, Kiwi Mitch Evans has finished second in the ABB Formula E series; his best championship result in the electric category to date.

Evans entered the event needing to score strong results in both races in order to bridge the points gap to championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne. He was successful in the opening race of the weekend, claiming victory, but could only follow that up with a seventh in race two.

“I gave it everything. In these conditions, since yesterday in the dry before it rained, we weren’t our usual pace and we’re just a little bit off,” Evans told Motorsport.com.

“We tried to fix that but qualifying just didn’t really come to us, it just wasn’t natural to drive.

“We tried obviously to make progress again, for the race. I made progress in terms of track position and got into the points but I couldn’t make more.

“But look, we gave it a good crack, some tracks just suit your car and sometimes it doesn’t. You know, this car can be really, really, really fast. But there’s a few tracks that we just can’t get on top of. We haven’t been able to this year.

“But the team’s got no regrets, neither do I. We gave it a really good crack this year, but just a little bit of inconsistency hurt us a bit.”

Evans was electric in the weekend’s opening race. Starting from third, he took the lead on lap one. He was clinical at the front from start to finish, save for a small sideways moment four laps from home.

Even a lengthy red flag delay couldn’t shake the Kiwi. The flag was prompted by a huge multi-car shunt in wet conditions, with eight cars all piling into the turn 21 wall. Among those in the carnage were Evans’ stand-in team mate Norman Nato and fellow Kiwi Nick Cassidy.

While Evans took the win, Vandoorne had to settle for fifth. This created a tantalising scenario for the Sunday race, with Evans effectively needing to repeat the same result to claim victory.

This plan was immediately shot in qualifying, with Evans only managing to qualify 13th after struggling to find balance in the dry. He climbed through the field to finish seventh, but it wasn’t enough to topple Vandoorne, who took second behind Edoardo Mortara.

One spot behind Evans was Cassidy. The former Super GT and Super Formula champ ended his sophomore Formula E season 11^th in the standings, edging team mate Sam Bird.

“Overall, we’re one of the strongest teams and drivers all year, we’ve worked really hard and all credit to everyone in the team and back at the factory for working their backsides off to give me the goods to try and go for the title,” added Evans, reflecting on his season.

“Right now, it kind of hurts. But I think we all know that we gave it our best shot. And we’ll come back next year.

“I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, I really am, but I’m not yet satisfied. I’m a fighter, I’m competitive, I always have been and yes, second, it’s great, but it’s not enough for me. I’ll recoup and regroup with the team, come back hard next year and keep on ironing out those little weaknesses that we’ve got.”