Two of the four drivers involved in yesterday’s qualifying timing debacle, which saw four Formula E champions denying themselves a chance of setting a time, have locked horns over the controversial incident.
Lucas di Grassi and Jean-Eric Vergne accused each other of causing the unsavoury incident, which saw themselves and Antonio Felix da Costa and Sebastien Buemi fail to cross the timing line in the allocated time to set a qualifying lap.
The incident had far-reaching championship consequences for all involved bar Da Costa, who had already wrapped up the title on Sunday evening.
Vergne’s race was compromised because of a penalty he was forced to serve due to a team error relating to the over-cooling of his battery. He lost second place in the points table to Oliver Rowland as a consequence.
Sebastien Buemi was the only one of the four to score a point in 10th in what he described as “my best race of the season so far,” after he cut through the pack from a 22nd-place start on the grid.
For di Grassi, a mid-race clash with da Costa necessitated a pitstop to replace a damaged tyre and yielded a subsequent time penalty after he was adjudged to have been at fault for the coming together.
But the Audi driver was unbowed when it came to the genesis of his poor result and put the blame firmly at the door of DS Teheetah.
“It was a miscalculation and very bad behaviour from the Techeetah team,” di Grassi told TV reporter Nicki Shields after the race. “They [Da Costa and Vergne] didn’t realise they have to let me by, they didn’t even let me by. I tried to overtake them a few times.
“They were not allowing me to overtake. I knew I was in trouble and I wanted to go through, but I couldn’t and that’s not the right approach.
“It’s not sportsmanship, [poor] behaviour.”
Flashbacks to the Italian Grand Prix last year, as drivers run out of time to set a qualifying lap 😂 Four @FIAFormulaE champions missed out on setting a time! 😱 pic.twitter.com/8W50SAztxu
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) August 12, 2020
Vergne at first reacted sarcastically to di Grassi’s accusations, saying: “Absolutely, you know, it’s completely our fault.”
“We did it on purpose actually. That was the goal and I guess we succeeded.
“No, more seriously, he’s a big man. I did let him by because he passed me. He started in front of me from the pitlane and he passed me in sector one and then he slowed down behind Antonio so I passed him again.
“So I don’t know what his problem is. I don’t know why he’s saying that.”
Di Grassi sought solace from the qualifying debacle, which cast the foundations for his poor result, by suggesting that his demotion to the second qualifying group will be beneficial for him in the final race of the season on Thursday.
“We are quite lucky to have gone to seventh place now,” he said.
“So I’m in group two in qualifying and that changes a lot because every time I’ve been on the podium it was every time I was in group two.”
The Race understands that Formula E officials, while disapproving of the practice which sees teams deliberately trying to be the last to cross the timing line within the set six-minute allowance, cannot officiate the tactic unless a clear and blatant blocking has taken place.
