some trouble with the car during qualifying, which meant we had to fight for position. I do believe that our place was within the top 6. When you end up 17th or 18th in qualifying, it's always difficult to make it happen in the race, so it's a 50/50. I'm happy with the performance in the race, not happy with having the opportunity to get on podium and to miss it.
How about when the yellow flag was out - is that to your benefit?
That was the right call. We are on a city track so it's always difficult to manage a damaged car. Sometimes we'd like to race a little bit more for sure, but this is part of it, so I do agree with the decision so far. I do prefer if we don't have yellow flags because I'm doing pretty well on saving energy. The more laps we have to do at high speed, the better it is for myself.
I'm coasting, I'm saving the battery by keeping it at a low temperature. It seems that I'm quite OK, that's probably due to my experience with endurance. For sure, the more laps we do under normal race conditions, it's better for me because it's more coasting for everybody and it seems the right way that I'm doing it.
That leads to my last question: You have a lot of experience in endurance racing, and you're very new to Formula E. Do you feel like you are where you should
be after this little time in Formula E?
I believe that we can fight at the front.
My (WEC) teammate is Lucas, and he finished on the podium this weekend. I'm fighting every weekend with Sebastian Buemi who is doing really good also. I think if I start the race in the top 8, we will really be able to finish on the podium.
So far, both races we've had problems in qualifying so we've ended up at the back of the queue. But when we resolve that, I'm sure the podium is available. In both races, here and Miami, we were in the top three quickest cars in the races, so that means if we start at the front with a good group, it will happen.
Image: Audi Sport