The first London E-Prix was a race to quickly forget for Oliver Rowland. The British driver was involved in an incident with António Félix da Costa early on in the race, for which he was handed a five-second penalty. After that, his race was basically over.
“It was quite short, really”, RowIand said to Pit Debrief after the race. “I obviously made a few positions in the first couple of laps, I was up to fifth. Antonio tried to pass me in Turn 19, he didn’t leave me much room ahead of Turn 20, and we made contact on the entrance to Turn 20.”
He continues: “The steering wheel was out of my hands, but I managed to get back going. I saved a bit of energy at the back, and then caught the group from like 30 seconds behind. I was actually hopeful to pass quite a lot of them, because I had a good energy advantage. Then the safety car came out, and the targets went up, and it was follow the leader.”
When asked on his view on the incident with Da Costa, he said: “For me, it’s 50/50; it’s a bit of a racing incident. I mean, the reason that we ended up in the wall, was because the steering wheel came out of my hands and my car went straight. But I pretty much had my whole car up the inside, and he turned in as if I wasn’t there. Then his car made my steering wheel come out of my hands. So I think it’s a racing incident.”
After the race, Jake Dennis admitted that he was happy with the strict decisions the stewards made. When asked if he agrees, Rowland said: “Yes, maybe. They still sometimes look at the consequences a little bit too much, I think. Like with me and Da Costa… If we had both made the corner, I don’t think they would have done anything about it.”
He continued: “But it was just the fact that the steering wheel came out of my hands and the car went straight that we ended about… I think if you replay the incident a hundred times, maybe ninety-nine times, that wouldn’t happen. But look, it is what it is, no hard feelings there.”
