René Rast Pleased With Well ‘Executed’ Cape Town E-Prix

René Rast bounced back from his error in Hyderabad superbly at last weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, with the German having worked his way from tenth to fourth, securing him some valuable points.

Rast was slapped with a three-place penalty after he took out Jake Dennis in India, meaning he started in tenth on Saturday rather than seventh. Regardless, he worked his way towards the front incredibly well, thanks to “good energy management”. His strong points haul saw him rise to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, with the German continuing to push towards the top five.

Rast was incredibly pleased with the way himself and the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team “executed” the race in Cape Town, with the “right calls” having also been made.

“Today was good. I had a good recovery today. I started the race in P10 and finished in P4. I was really happy with my performance in Qualifying in the Group stage, where I was fastest, which unfortunately didn’t come together in the Duels.

“I then received a penalty from India, so started three places back. However, I had good race pace, good efficiency, good energy management and the team and I made the right calls. I’m very happy with how we executed the race and delighted to have scored some more points, a good step in the right direction. Next up is Brazil next month, which I am looking forward to.”

“One of the first difficult weekends I have had” – Jake Hughes

On the other side of the McLaren garage, rookie Jake Hughes endured “one of the first difficult weekends” of his Formula E career so far. Unlike in recent rounds, Hughes never really looked comfortable in Cape Town, with his pace having not been amongst the frontrunners.

He still had the potential to make the duels, though, but made a mistake at Turn One where he struck the wall, resulting in damage to his McLaren. As a result of his qualifying error, the British driver started thirteenth, before finding “some strange things” with his car during the race. As a result of the potential issues with his car, Hughes could only hold on to tenth, which resulted in him dropping from seventh to ninth in the Drivers’ Championship.

The last couple of races have certainly been challenging for Hughes, who wants to “understand what happened” to his car during the closing stages of the race.

“All in all, a difficult weekend for me. It was one of the first difficult weekends I have had so far in terms of performance. The result wasn’t there in India for various reasons out of our control, but the performance was really good there. I struggled with the car and the track today, in Qualifying I hit the wall, which meant I carried some damage through the session which compromised us.

“Still, we started P13 and I felt pretty comfortable in terms of energy, but we found some strange things during the final Safety Car which put us on the back foot. We still need to understand what happened, but for most of the race we were comfortable with energy, which is a positive. A massive thanks to the team, they had to repair my car between Qualifying and the race at short notice. I’m looking forward to going again in Brazil soon.”

Credit: LAT Images courtesy of FIA Formula E