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Formula E Mexico ePrix
Heidfeld says energy management costed Mahindra points
With the disqualification of Lucas di Grassi, Mahindra Racing were able to secure a double point finish at the Mexico ePrix but Nick Heidfeld believes the Indian squad would have scored more, if not for energy issues.
Darshan Chokhani
Edited: Mar 13, 2016, 1:26 PM
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The ABT driver was stripped of his win after the race, giving Dragon's Jerome D'Ambrosio his second Formula E win with Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost completing the podium.
Thus, Heidfeld, who finished ninth was promoted to eighth, scoring four points after a tough battle with Sam Bird, Robin Frijns and Stephane Sarrazin.
“It was a tough race to earn four points. Of course, I expect us to be finishing much further up the field," he said after the race.
"The circuit was very bumpy and testing for all the drivers and we saw so many incidents and mistakes during the race."
Heidfeld was fighting for seventh with Frijns, Bird and Sarrazin but having to save energy, meant the German dropped to ninth. “The difficulty was energy management," he said.
"We saw that the pace of the car was good but I had to push and defend a lot in the first stint.
"I had to coast more than the cars around me which we are trying to understand at the moment because usually we are very strong on energy use in races.
"This meant I had to be careful with my energy strategy on the final laps but it was an enjoyable battle," he added, sits ninth with 27 points.
Teammate Bruno Senna suffered a spin in qualifying and started from 16th to finish 11th and was promoted to 10th.
"We had a strong set-up and I believe we could have started and finished in a much higher position," said the Brazilian, who is 12th with 12 points.
Work on qualifying pace
Team boss Dilbagh Gill was 'disappointed' with the outcome as the Indian aims the team fight at the front than the mid-pack.
"This was a disappointing race for us. We expect to be competing closer to the front and scoring regular points in both cars," he said.
Stressing on qualifying, Gill hopes to improve in the coming races to challenge teams like Renault, ABT and Dragon.
"The target for us is to improve our qualifying pace and hit the ground running in the second half of the season," he added with the team maintaining fifth on 39 points.
Senna echoed Gill's thoughts and said: "We still have to find some extra raw pace so we start further forward.
"But I am confident that we are gaining ground and building toward a strong second half of the season.”
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