On Saturday, the Formula E paddock visited their third continent for the third race of the season. After being let go by McLaren, Belgian driver Stoffel Vandoorne is trying his hand at Formula E. Round 3 was at Santiago in Chile while the previous rounds were in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Marrakech in Morocco.
Vandoorne hadn’t had the best of runs so far, but had pace in qualifying. In Santiago, he proved it again by grabbing 5th on the grid. Sadly, mid-race, he made a mistake while overtaking an opponent and stuffed the car into the wall.
It was going so well for @svandoorne up until this moment 😔#SantiagoEPrix pic.twitter.com/Zyh9zGkhon
— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) January 26, 2019
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Meanwhile, the race was won by British driver Sam Bird, with Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein 2nd. Completing the podium was Daniel Abt, after original 3rd-placed finisher, Alexander Sims, copped a penalty.
Bird is now 2nd in the driver’s standings, just one point behind Wehrlein’s teammate, Jerome D’Ambrosio. Only 14 drivers finished the race as a number of title contenders crashed or retired. D’Ambrosio was the only contender, apart from Bird, to finish in the points, with a fine 8th place.
Later on, Vandoorne took to Twitter to express his thoughts on the race.
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Extremely disappointed with my stupid mistake today 😔 Im sorry for the whole team, good points were up for grabs today! Gonna work hard to come back stronger! 🙏 Ciao Santiago pic.twitter.com/PJONieGHBj
— Stoffel Vandoorne (@svandoorne) January 26, 2019