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Vergne hails Techeetah turnaround after "emotional" win

Formula E points leader Jean-Eric Vergne has hailed the turnaround of his Techeetah team after the most "emotional" victory of his career in Paris.

Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, finishes 3rd with Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, finishing 2nd, Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah winning the Paris ePrix

Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, finishes 3rd with Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, finishing 2nd, Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah winning the Paris ePrix

Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah. celebrates his win with his team
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah. celebrates his win with his team
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah
Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, finishes 3rd with Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, finishing 2nd, Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah winning the Paris ePrix
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, Andre Lotterer, Techeetah
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, wins the Paris ePrix
Start of race with Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, leading Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, Andre Lotterer, Techeetah, Maro Engel, Venturi Formula E Team
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, wins the Paris ePrix, Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler, finishes 2nd, Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, in 3rd
Jean-Eric Vergne, Techeetah, Sam Bird, DS Virgin Racing, Andre Lotterer, Techeetah

Vergne extended his standings lead to 31 points over DS Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird with a commanding win from pole position in his home city.

It came just two weeks after he struggled to fifth in the previous round in Rome, and the Frenchman praised the way his Techeetah squad had turned things around between the two events.

“It was clearly my most emotional win, by far,” he said.  “If there was a race that I wanted to win this year, it was clearly Paris. 

“And to have done it in such a good way today with pole position and race win is absolutely amazing – I cannot be happier, especially [as] it was my birthday this week. 

“So it’s been an incredible week and I think I’m going to need a few days [off] my feet before racing again next weekend [at Spa in the FIA World Endurance Championship].

“I have to thank my team – Rome was a tough one for me. Sometimes you have low weekends and Rome was a low on for me. 

“That’s always hard for the confidence, but we worked very hard and coming back in Paris shows that we can turn things around."

Formula E points after 8/12 races:

PosDriverTeamPointsWins
1 france Jean-Eric Vergne Techeetah-Renault 147 3
2 united_kingdom Sam Bird DS Virgin Racing 116 2
3 sweden Felix Rosenqvist Mahindra Racing 86 2
4 switzerland Sébastien Buemi Renault e.dams 70 0
5 brazil Lucas di Grassi Audi Sport Abt 58 0
6 germany Daniel Abt Audi Sport Abt 56 1

When asked for his thoughts on his home FE event, which is on a rolling year-by-year arrangement with the electric championship’s organisers, Vergne hailed the track’s location and implementation. 

“Rome is an amazing race but the track is not central – it’s not around the Colosseum,” he said. “Here, we have the best location ever on the Formula E calendar. 

“The track is hard to overtake [on], but it’s the same in Hong Kong, for example, same in many other tracks. And I think Paris has done an amazing job to create an event that is growing massively. 

“To see the amount of fans there were and the level of the organisation [has] increased massively compared to last year – I think it’s developed more beautiful. 

“It was a very successful event and I’m happy that the mayor of Paris is backing us to keep moving forward with the Formula E championship and I can’t wait to get back here next year.” 

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