News

• 11th place for Stoffel Vandoorne, 14th place for Gary Paffett
• Gary Paffett: "It was a case of staying clear of trouble."
• Stoffel Vandoorne: "There is not a single spot on my car that was not hit."
• Ulrich Fritz: "Happy we finished the race without any crashes."

Monaco, 11th May 2019 – With cloudy skies over the Monaco harbour, the morning went smoothly for HWA RACELAB in the glamorous principality. Both drivers were fully focussed in the practice sessions, as they completed their laps of the 1.76-kilometre circuit. The only thing missing was a little pace.

Stoffel produced a flawless performance in qualifying, earning himself a good starting position in tenth place on the grid. Gary made slight contact with the barrier on his flying lap and was originally 20th after qualifying. However, several drivers were subsequently awarded grid penalties, meaning the British driver started the race from 17th.

A good start saw Stoffel immediately climb one place into ninth. He confidently defended this position until things became rather eventful towards the middle of the race. The former Formula 1 driver first had to let two rivals pass him after a failed overtaking manoeuvre. However, Stoffel hit straight back with a skilful manoeuvre in the harbour hairpin to regain his spot in the top ten.

With the aid of the Fanboost, Stoffel was initially able to defend his ninth place, before Robin Frijns and Mitch Evans eventually found a way past him. The action went back and forth in the final few laps: Stoffel benefitted from a collision involving two drivers ahead of him and moved back into ninth place. However, he then dropped back out of the points on the penultimate lap.

Stoffel climbed from 12th into eleventh place with an attack in the closing metres. In the end, however, he came up one place short of scoring points for the third time this season, having previously secured pole position in Hong Kong and finished third in Rome.

Gary Paffett stayed clear of trouble towards the back of the field. The DTM champion also completed the full race distance with the Venturi VFE05 and eventually came home 14th.

Quotes on the race

Stoffel Vandoorne (27, Belgium, car number 5), 11th place
"It was a very tough race - really a battle out there. I don't think there is a single spot on my car that was not hit. I was simply unlucky in a few situations, in which I lost positions. We did not actually drive a bad race. We did a good job and did not try anything crazy. It looked like we were on for some points, but it was not to be."

Gary Paffett (38, England, car number 17), 14th place
"A tough race from 17th on the grid. It is really difficult to overtake here, even harder than at the other Formula E circuits. It was ultimately a case of staying clear of trouble and making up a few positions in the process. I did that in the end, in 14th place. Unfortunately, it was not enough to finish in the points this time, but I only have myself to blame for that, as my qualifying was not good enough."

Ulrich Fritz, Team Principal HWA RACELAB
"Firstly, we are happy to have finished the race with both cars without any crashes. The pace is there and the reliability of the cars is improving all the time. We were obviously hoping for some points this weekend, but that was not to be. Overtaking is really tough at this circuit. Time and time again there was contact with other drivers, which made it difficult for Stoffel and Gary. Congratulations to Felipe and Venturi on the podium at their home race. We are now looking forward to Berlin."

Preview
The next round of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship is the BMW i Berlin E-Prix Presented by CBMM Niobium on 25th May.