São Paulo Street Circuit, Saturday, 25 March

Hear from NEOM McLaren Formula E Team drivers René Rast and Jake Hughes, and Team Principal Ian James after the São Paulo E-Prix.

Free Practice 2	7th (1m11.939s)
Qualifying	6th (1m12.909s)
Race	8th

"It’s nice to have finished with some points in São Paulo this weekend. I’ve scored points in five out of six races so far, so it’s been a good start to the year – and it’s continued today. I think we had a strong race, however the start was difficult. From that point onwards we managed to deliver a good race.

"We were really good with our energy management, something that has improved throughout the season. We just didn’t have the performance, balance or rear tyres to really do much more. We still have some areas to improve in, but for what we have right now, I think myself and the team managed a good race.

"We’re executing our races very well at the moment and hopefully we can bring some more points at our next race in Berlin in a few weeks."

Free Practice 2	11th (1m12.037s)
Qualifying	11th (1m13.161s)
Race	9th

"We scored solid points today at the São Paulo E-Prix: Jake finished eighth and I finished ninth. Despite this, we would’ve liked to finish in a higher position. Sometimes it isn’t easy, today’s race wasn’t, I started 11th and finished ninth, so I made up two positions. We need to make progress, this weekend was a tough one. We weren’t on the pace in qualifying like we were before. We were also missing a bit of race pace and we need to investigate why. Next up is my home race in Berlin, which I’m really looking forward to."

"We’re leaving our inaugural race here in São Paulo with a handful of points - although our goal is to leave every race with more than just a handful. Having said that, I’m incredibly proud of how the team performed: both the drivers and the team behind them dealt with a chaotic race with a calm efficiency, which maximised the potential we had in the package.   
 
"Our competitors have clearly made a step in performance, so we will be putting in all the work needed to close this gap. We’ve got around a month until the next race weekend in Berlin, so the focus between now and then is to find the improvements necessary to get us back towards the front. 
 
"I’m confident we will be coming back stronger."

Standings after Round 6

NEOM McLaren Formula E Team	6th (72 points)
René Rast	8th (40 points)
Jake Hughes	10th (32 points)

 

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