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Alex Lynn believes he had the car and strategy to win his first Formula E race at Valencia had he not been punted by Norman Nato.
But he’s also convinced his fight back to third place was his best drive in the series so far.
The Mahindra driver stalked polesitter and eventual winner Jake Dennis, conserving energy in the BMW’s slipstream, for the majority of the race but was pushed off by Nato in an ill-fated move by the Venturi driver into the tight Turn 9 going into the final third of the event.
15 minutes + 1 lap remaining and we have a change for second place as @NatoNorman tags @alexlynnracing…
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— ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) April 25, 2021
He stormed back from ninth position, overtaking Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Rene Rast and Oliver Rowland to finish fourth on the road before being elevated to third when Nato’s five-second penalty for the collision was applied.
Lynn has come close on several occasions to making the podium and was even likely to have won for Jaguar in New York in 2019 had it not been for a technical issue.
His previous best result had been fifth place at the penultimate Berlin race last August. Lynn had joined Mahindra for the Berlin races when Porsche-bound Pascal Wehrlein was dismissed.
“We did have the pace [to win] and in a few days’ time it will hurt,” Lynn told The Race.
“But right now to get a podium after so many years, fuck it feels good!
“We did have the car to win, we had the strategy to win, and we had the efficiency to win but we didn’t and fair play to Jake because he played a blinder and that’s the risk you take when you’re sitting in the pack.”
Lynn admitted being sucked back into the pack by the Nato clash amounted to being “bitten” by the tactic of sitting behind Dennis. And after that he “had to make it happen with a fresh attack”.
“I’m pretty proud of the Mahindra team, the car and myself at that moment because we changed tactics and we went full aggressive and made it happen,” said Lynn.
He said Nato “apologised” for the incident, which Lynn accepted as an innocent mistake.
“The brakes are cold and everyone’s in a train and there’s always a little bit of bumping and unfortunately it was enough of a bump to bin me off into the gravel,” said Lynn.
After a collision with Sam Bird and then a dramatic aerial crash in the two Diriyah races and just an eighth place from the Rome weekend, Lynn put himself under significant pressure to kick-start his 2021 season at Valencia.
“I put myself under a lot of pressure to make it happen this weekend so I am just super happy after a fantastic result in what I consider my best race so far,” said Lynn.
“This weekend always had to be strong to be honest, after Saudi especially.
“Rome was always about bouncing back and having a clean weekend, which we did too.
“We knew from pre-season testing we would be competitive here and I personally was feeling confident on this track.”
