Despite initially promising pace, difficulties during the race left Lola Yamaha ABT empty handed in Shanghai.
• Round 10 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship took place at the Shanghai International Circuit
• Promising pace wasn’t converted into grid position in a very tight qualifying session, with Lucas di Grassi missing out on the duels by eleven hundredths
• After starting 18th (Zane Maloney) and 19th (Lucas di Grassi), difficulties with pace and efficiency in the race led to finishes of P19 and P18 respectively
Despite initially promising pace, difficulties during the race left Lola Yamaha ABT empty handed in Shanghai today.
After a very tight qualifying session where the drivers were only separated by six tenths of a second, Lucas and Zane both qualified 10th in their respective groups, ultimately lining up 19th and 18th on the grid respectively following a penalty for Mitch Evans.
The team split strategies to try to make up places in the race, with Lucas taking both Attack Modes before coming in for his pit boost, climbing as high as 2nd position in the process. Zane, meanwhile, opted to focus on energy saving in the early stages, before coming in for the mandatory 10% energy boost. He then took both of his Attack Modes, working his way up the field.
However, struggles with pace and efficiency, combined with competitors behind them having Attack Mode left in the latter stages of the race, saw the drivers fall back through the field to finish in P18 (Lucas) and P19 (Zane).
Lucas di Grassi, #11
“In terms of pace, we did a good job in qualifying being only eleven hundredths from the duels but unfortunately the pack was so tight that we qualified in 19th place, which makes everything more difficult in the race. We worked our way from P19 to P2 in the early stages but didn’t have the pace or efficiency to stay there and lost a lot of positions by the end, ultimately finishing outside of the points. However, I think we showed promise. We’ll analyse and learn from today, and try our best to improve for tomorrow which will be a completely different race.”
Zane Maloney, #22
“We had a very positive FP1 and FP2 but didn’t quite maximise the potential we saw there in qualifying, despite the pace generally being very good this weekend. The goal is to try and use this promising pace to get a good result in qualifying, as it’s always a bit more difficult when you start towards the back. It’s predicted to be wet tomorrow so it’s going to be tough for everyone, however, I’m looking forward to driving the car in those conditions as we’ve shown good potential every wet session so far.”
Mark Preston, Motorsport Director, Lola Cars
“Qualifying was ultra-competitive today with both qualifying groups spread by just six tenths. We started the race P18 and P19 and implemented different strategies for each side of the garage to see if we could make up places. The race was quite exciting with both drivers making progress at points of the race but unfortunately in the end we couldn’t get into the points. We’ll go over all the data to hopefully make improvements before we go again in the rain tomorrow.”
Thomas Biermaier, CEO, ABT
“After a good performance in free practice, qualifying was quite tight. We didn’t manage to get the tyres in the right window for the quickest lap which led to us stating in the back and if you start in the back in Formula E it’s quite difficult to score good points. We tried different strategies but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Tomorrow is a new day, with new hope and new motivation to score points."
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