The Monaco ePrix was a thrilling encounter, with a race-long battle for the lead and fights for positions throughout the field. Here’s how the Formula E drivers viewed their race.
1stSebastien Buemi, Renault e.dams: “I am really happy to be winning again. I was quicker the first half of the race and everything was under control, so I managed to build a gap between Lucas and I in case of a safety car. On the second stint, I was struggling to match his pace, so basically I did the entire race looking in the mirrors. It was in the second car where I had less pace, so we need to understand why this was. In general, we change a little bit the set-up of the second cars in order to use the extra grip of the circuit. If you want the perfect car, sometimes it need adjustments. I am still very happy with that result and I am looking forward to go to Paris next week. We have a good car, we have a great team.”
2ndLucas di Grassi, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport: “This was another great fight today – both in qualifying and in the race. We had a car we could have beaten Renault with. Unfortunately, the track in Monaco hardly offers any overtaking opportunities, plus Seb is a strong and experienced driver, but if he’d left the door open just a little bit, I would no doubt have launched an attack.”
3rdNick Heidfeld, Mahindra Racing: “The day finished well for us eventually. After my qualifying lap I was second, but the next groups were quicker and I had to start from P8. It was awesome to go around on the outside at the start and gain three places from eighth place, but I had to make sure I wasn’t in a dangerous position for turn two and slot back in! I was running quite safely in fifth place with not too big a gap to the guys in front, meaning I wasn’t tailing them when they made contact and benefited nicely. This promoted me to third, and while I couldn’t hold the pace of the leaders it ws nice to see the cars in my wing mirrors getting smaller. You can never relax around Monaco and there are always a few late incidents but it’s great to finish on the podium.”
4thNelson Piquet Jr., NextEV NIO: “It was a tough race, one of my toughest races with the whole time looking in my mirrors. Obviously the JEV incident wasn’t fun. I hate when it happens with a friend of mine like that when you’re on track you don’t decide who you’re fighting with. In my opinion he was aggressive as he passed me on the outside knowing he could’ve passed me in the pitstop as he would’ve gone one or two laps more than me – he was way quicker. For some reason, he really wanted to get past me sooner in the race, there’s not much more to say. He came past on the outside and I defended my position on a tight corner and obviously, we touched, we got together and got stuck and the wall just comes into us when we’re there. There was nowhere really to go and that was it. I was lucky to get away from the incident as we were both going to crash but I wasn’t just going to let him get by. I had to in some way hold my position, I just didn’t know he was going to come aggressively on the outside. It’s a shame, I hate when it happens to good guys, so let’s move on and get to Paris!”
5thMaro Engel, Venturi: “It’s great to get a top five at your home race for Venturi. I’m proud of the guys they gave me a good car today and the only unfortunate part was Super Pole. We had the pace to get more but couldn’t get the brakes up to temperature as expected and struggled with retardation of the car but overall, we can be please with a top five result – it’s a strong showing and we can take the momentum into the next race as we have a lot of double headers coming up.”
6thFelix Rosenqvist, Mahindra Racing: “Looking back at the day I think we started off very good in FP1 and showed we are one of the quickest around here. I had a crash at the end of that session after a misunderstanding with the marshals and drivers, which put me on the back foot for the rest of the day. The race was good, but all the wrong things happened which was out of our hands. At the start, my plan was to be on the inside then everyone went on the outside, which no one thought would work but it did! After my pit stop I lost my radio in the second stint and couldn’t talk to the team, so we had to communicate through the pit board, which worked quite well in the end. Considering this, I’m quite happy finishing P6 and I’m really happy the team has scored a podium. It’s where we want to be and Nick showed today it’s where we should be and I’m not happy until I am on the podium.”
7thDaniel Abt, Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport: “The first turns in Monaco are really nerve-racking. I had to give up a few places first, but was then able to make up ground again. It was great to see that we’re in contention in terms of speed. That’s very encouraging.”
8th Esteban Gutierrez, TECHEETAH: “We experienced quite a lot of ups and downs today. It’s pretty challenging in Formula E – once you have a small problem with the car it’s very likely to compromise one of the sessions and that happened to us today in qualifying but in the race we ended up in the points, improving the result from Mexico so we can be very happy to keep the rhythm of improvement.”
9thNico Prost, Renault e.dams: “I had a bad qualifying and then a very good race - in Monaco where you start 18th you don’t expect too much. The team did good, we just need to find out why qually didn’t go to plan but other than that we’re there. We just need to put everything together and we’ll be fighting for podiums every race.”
10thMitch Evans, Panasonic Jaguar Racing: “I really love racing in Monaco. We made up some places in the race and came away again with valuable points for the second race in a row – we are making solid progress. It’s great to drive for a team that isn’t afraid to take advantage of opportunities when they occur. I think it shows real racing spirit. We are making important gains in many areas and I want to play my part in continuing that momentum now.”
11thAntonio Felix da Costa, Andretti: “It was a bad qualifying and it put us on the back foot for the race. Being in Group 1 and we also did a mistake of being the first ones we didn’t know, so it is what it is. All that combined was the beginning of a bad qualifying and we had to start towards the back. The track was slippery in Q1 and I ended up driving a bad lap. Good start, I gained a position and ended up losing it later, Adam dived in on me and hit me so it looked like everything was going wrong. But I quickly understood that I had very good pace although I got stuck behind Adam for a few laps but I passed him and was really fast; probably the third or fourth fastest car on track which is encouraging for the race pace.”
12thRobin Frijns, Andretti: “Everything looked okay in the first car and I think I had more energy left mid-way through the race than the cars around me. I think the other cars were planning to stop one lap earlier than we were but then the Qualcomm Safety Car came out and everyone came to their box at the same time. After that it was about everyone surviving. I had Gutierrez behind me and I couldn't follow the car in front of me while trying to hit my numbers which was difficult. Then in the last few laps the regen went away and I couldn't recover. It was a bit of a surprise but that's how it goes.”
13thOliver Turvey, NextEV NIO: “In qualifying it was a struggle. First of all getting drawn in Group 1 in the lottery didn’t help – I think we had the worst track conditions. I also tapped the wall at T2 so I think we had a bit of damage on the rear so it wasn’t the ideal qualifying session and it put us in a difficult position at the start of the race in 16th. The first corner went pretty well, I got on the inside and managed to make up a few places and after that I tried to save as much energy as possible. The second stint went reasonably well although we lost a place in the pitstop which was quite a close release with one of the Andretti cars. I think the second stint was a fight to get into the points and I think in the end we were fighting for 10th but at the end of the stint we had an issue with energy which we need to understand so it was a shame to end the race like that.”
14thAdam Carroll, Panasonic Jaguar Racing: “It was fun to be back racing in Monaco. I have great memories of racing here and today’s race was really exciting. Racing a technical circuit like this while managing your energy and pace brings its own challenges. Luck didn’t go our way with the safety car today but we focused on our racing and bringing the car home. A second consecutive points finish means a lot to the whole team.”
Ret Jose Maria Lopez, DS Virgin Racing: “There’s not much to say. I felt like FP1 and FP2 were by far my best in these last five races. To be able to be top five in both of them I prepared very well for qualifying, then in qualifying we expected more and we lost some grip and went backwards on the grid as I think we could’ve easily have been in Super Pole today. At the start I was braking, I was on the inside and got him by Daniel Abt, quite strong as he broke my rear wing and I also pushed the car in the front so there’s not much you can do but it’s a shame. Everyone was a little bit too hot in the corner and we ruined our race and opportunity for points. We have the next race in a few days so we can hope to do well there.”
Ret Jerome D’Ambrosio, Faraday Future Dragon Racing: “It wasn’t going to be an easy race having had the car shut down in qualifying, having had to start from the back. It was always going to be a challenging day but then we had a good call on the Qualcomm Safety Car and we came in but it came out pretty quickly and in the end we didn’t manage to gain a lot. I was running in P14 when the car shut down again so I tried to go and get the Visa Fastest Lap but that didn’t work by a couple of hundredths to Sam. We need to try and get a weekend together and not having the car shut down in the race or qualifying.”
Ret Loic Duval, Faraday Future Dragon Racing: “First we started from the back due to a penalty during qualifying which isn’t nice especially in Monaco as it’s difficult to overtake. I stayed a little bit at the back but we couldn’t do anything so we just decided to go for the Visa Fastest Lap but we were just too slow. This was the first time this year that we were not competitive in a race. Normally that’s our strong point but we struggled today and we have to look into it to see the reason because also in practice we were P6, qualifying P12 although it was in a group so I had a little bit of traffic with Seb [Buemi]. On pure performance we are not that bad but this afternoon we struggled a lot.”
Ret Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing: “It was a tough day. I struggled with the rear tyres from the beginning of the race but I made a good start and everything was looking good, but then the rear tyres overheated and I had massive oversteer. I knew the race was done because we were three laps down, we’re never going to score points from there and the only option we had was to go for Visa Fastest Lap. Thankfully we get one point, that was the maximum we could achieve and we did it.”
Ret Jean-Eric Vergne, TECHEETAH: “I don’t have a personal view on the incident. When I was alongside with him at the exit, he didn’t leave me any room. I could follow the pack in the race while saving a lot of energy. I would not say the win was possible because there were still two cars to pass, but a podium was within reach. I am happy for Esteban again finished in the points. Two races and two points finish is very good progress. The performance today was amazing up until the incident and operation wise also a clean weekend. So I am looking forward to my home race next weekend.”