Turvey: NIO 333's Rome points-double 'felt like a win'

Oliver Turvey hailed NIO 333's double points finish in the Rome E-Prix Round 5 as a "massive" achievement that felt "like a victory" as the team strode to seventh and 10th-placed finishes in the Italian capital.

The British driver and NIO 333 stalwart started right at the back of the grid but was able to bide his time and conserve usable energy to pick his moments to push on as Safety Cars and time penalties conspired against those around him.

The team employed the same strategy with Dan Ticktum, after seeing the potential in playing the long game back in Mexico City - where progress was made, though points proved elusive. Turvey spoke ahead of the Rome E-Prix on the team's potential in Round 3, and his disappointment at not bagging points come the chequered flag. It was a different story in Rome, and a sign of steady progress at the outfit.

"We're trying different things every race weekend because of the limits to testing and we have to roll the dice a bit," said Turvey ahead of the Rome weekend.

"I felt we made good progress in the race in Mexico by looking after our energy and driving efficiently. I was disappointed in the end there not to get any points when we had a good chance to.

"We had the strategy before the race to save as much as we could in the beginning and we were hoping for a Safety Car to come. It came early but allowed us to close the gap and we then had extra energy in hand for the rest of the race. 

"I could use that to overtake a number of cars and we timed ATTACK MODE well. It was a perfectly executed race.

"To get six points here and drive from 22nd to seventh was amazing - it feels like a victory to us. It's so tough to get points now in Formula E as it's such a competitve field. You've got to take your chance when it comes and it means a massive amount to capitalise and I'm just really pleased for the team."

Points to go with progress

The team has been chipping away so far this season in a bid to eventually score points. Seventh and 10th-placed finishes have come early but Turvey's under no illusions that they're "still playing catch-up" to those immediately ahead of NIO 333 in the midfield - with confidence and consistency in the car under braking a focus.

Deputy Team Principal Russell O'Hagan agrees, telling fiaformulae.com that the aim is creating a strong base for the team ahead of Gen3 while in the short-term closing the gap to the outfits just in-front, ticking off key bits of development work to that end. 

Clever strategy calls have accelerated returns, with Ticktum's maiden Formula E points providing the icing on the cake. The rookie left Rome feeling disappointed not to have matched Turvey's haul despite comparing favourably to his teammate on pace alone.

"I do think I could have been top five in Group Qualifying or even have made the Duels," said Ticktum. "The car felt really good, and that's big kudos to the team for bringing the car forward in terms of one-lap pace - it felt a lot better.

"A number of incidents hindered me in the race - it's just the way they fell. Everything that could go wrong, did which was a shame."