Formula E: Jean-Eric Vergne delighted to be back on podium

Making his debut in India for the first time, Jean-Eric Vergne held his nerves to win the inaugural Formula E race in India at the Hyderabad E-Prix.

Hyderabad: The last time he stood on the top of the podium was way back in April 2021 in Rome when he won the race in the seventh season. Making his debut in India for the first time, Jean-Eric Vergne held his nerves to win the inaugural Formula E race in India at the Hyderabad E-Prix and the French driver was delighted to be back on the podium.

Speaking after his victory, Vergne, a two-time champion, said, “It feels good to be back on the podium. It was important to record this victory. The race was very good. I haven’t made many mistakes. It was a tough race, definitely not a peaceful race for sure.”

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Despite the victory, Vergne said that they need to improve a lot. “We are certainly not at our best yet. We won the race today but we are not the quickest yet. We still have quite a bit of things to improve if we want to have good results like these. We need to keep pushing,” he said.

He also lauded the new track in the city. “I like new tracks – I think it’s cool. Especially this one – it’s a lot of fun. When there are a lot of little secrets to find on the track, I probably find them quickly enough.”

The second-placed Nick Cassidy of Envision Racing team said, “I had a really good car today – huge thanks to all my guys. I think at the races this year we’ve been pretty good. I really feel for Mitch and Jaguar today because they’re a great partner and they’ve started the season very strongly. I think the package we have is really strong and so I’m super sorry to see them go out the race like that.”

Though Cassidy’s teammate Sebastian Buemi finished third, he was penalised after the race that pushed him to 15^th. That took Antonio Felix da Costa of Porsche to third place. This was also his 100^th race and he was happy to be on the podium.

“It felt like it meant to be. The race actually started really well and then I got squeezed by Dennis and I lost a lot of positions. But we stayed calm and worked our way back to the front slowly, and managed our energy. It hasn’t been an easy start for me. It was an emotional day for me looking back at the now 100 races or the 99 races before and where I am and things not working out like I want them to be. I can’t be satisfied with the way I am qualifying at the moment. Having said that, I have an amazing team behind me, always pushing me and giving me the tools. So I know it’s only a matter of time before we do a better job in qualifying and obviously the car can race really well. And yeah I’m really happy I came all the way to India and got a podium in my 100th race.”