Coughton racer Alexander Sims endures difficult weekend at Valencia E-Prix
ALEXANDER Sims had a weekend to forget at the Valencia E-Prix double-header and admitted the final classification for Saturday’s result was “difficult to take”.
Energy overuse caused many cars to be disqualified from round five of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, including Coughton racer Sims. Sunday did not get any better for the 33-year-old, with a drive through penalty in round six for a technical infringement meant that despite setting the fastest lap, he finished 23rd.
“This weekend was certainly a difficult one. After the team did so well to get us in a great position, and in particular climb so high up the field in Saturday’s race, it was difficult to take the final classification result,” said Sims.
“In Sunday’s race, I lost time in a very inefficient way with the drive-through penalty; there was no chance to catch up. We were just waiting for a safety car – that was the only card we had.
“What we did do was work on the car to improve balance and systems. So far this season the car has been really solid; the whole team is doing a good job, and everything is moving in the right direction.”
Sims set the 11th fastest lap time of 1:27.109 in his No.29 Mahindra Racing M7Electro ahead of Saturday’s race. Despite starting mid-pack, he put in an impressive performance during the wet action-packed race, which was punctuated by five safety cars.
By the mid-point he had climbed to fifth and then jumped into podium contention, running third on the penultimate lap of the race. However, the safety car periods meant that a total of 19kWh of energy was removed from the cars during the course of the race.
This resulted in the majority of the field running out of usable energy on the final lap and were disqualified from the results. Sims and his team-mate Alex Lynn were included in this, with only nine cars classified.
Sims started 11th for Sunday’s race, but a drive-through penalty issued on the first lap for a coolant temperature technical infringement put him at the back. Despite setting the fastest lap of the race, he was unable to claw back positions and finished 23rd. The next round is at Monaco on 8th May.
