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Sport | Car racing

‘One to forget’ for Evans in Formula E round two

Photo/Mitch Evans (YouTube)

Mitch Evans has finished well down the grid in the second round of the latest Formula E championship in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

In an incident-packed race, the Auckland-born driver found himself involved in a crash that took out Englishman Sam Bird, who had won the previous race.

Evans received a lap penalty that dropped him down the field, after which he struggled to regain any sort of position and eventually finished 18th in the 24 car field.

There was better news for his Jaguar teammate James Caldo, who finished seventh. Fellow Kiwi, Brendan Hartley, who was competing in only his second race in Formula E, made up for his disappointing debut with a ninth-place finish in his GeoX Dragon car.

Evans did not agree that he had caused the accident that sent Bird out of the race, saying:

“Personally, I don’t think he gave me any room. I wasn’t going to back out of it, I thought I was up far enough…I can’t just disappear and I’m not going to back out of it, Evans said.

“It was disappointing, one to forget.”

The series now takes a break over the Christmas period and returns to action in Santiago, Chile on January 18. There are 14 rounds around the world in the championship that runs until July next year.