Frustrating trip to Rome for Jake Hughes

“It has been a frustrating trip to Italy for the whole team. As is the way with Formula E, it can be fine margins between having a good day or a bad day. The team did well to correct the car balance between FP2 and Qualifying. My first lap in Qualifying, which was P3 at the time, felt much better and I was much happier with the car. It was a shame that we couldn’t show it for the rest of Qualifying due to my crash. The track here is very bumpy, which caught us out in Qualifying, and the damage meant I had to miss the race. I’m very thankful and very appreciative of the team, who worked tirelessly to fix the car ready for Sunday.” Unfortunately, Sunday was another disappointing day in Rome. Formula E is a game of fine margins, especially where we have been this year – fighting for Pole Positions, but not quite having the race pace we would’ve liked. Sometimes you need a bit of luck for things to go your way in races too, which we didn’t have this weekend. I didn’t have the smoothest Qualifying, but starting P11 wasn’t too bad. After the first lap of the Race, I was up to P9, but I was unfortunately involved in an incident that broke my front wing. I had to pit, ended up near the back, and from that point the race became flat out to make up positions on a track that is hard to overtake on. I finished P11, which was close to the points but not meant to be. However, I feel like we showed a lot more strength in our race pace compared to races of late, especially Portland. Looking ahead to London, if we can perform to the same level and have a bit more luck, we should be back in the points. Bring it on.”

- Jake Hughes

SESSION RESULTS:

Jake Hughes #5

Free Practice 1: P12 (1:40:585)

Free Practice 2: P20 (1:39.700)

Qualifying: Not classified

Race: DNS

Free Practice 3: P18 (1:39.162)

Qualifying: P11 (1:38.677)

Race: P11

STANDINGS:

Jake Hughes: P12 (46 points)

NEOM McLaren Formula E Team: P7 (86 points)