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06/12/2017
NIO Formula E Team: Berlin ePrix Report
Rounds seven and eight of the 2016/17 FIA Formula E Championship took place this weekend at the Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin. The NextEV NIO Formula E Team’s Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr were on driving duties for Saturday’s 44-lap race and Sunday’s longer 46-lap event. The team leaves Berlin having collected three championship points from Oliver’s tenth place finish on Saturday and ninth place on Sunday.
Although Formula E visited Tempelhof in its inaugural season, for this year the circuit was entirely reconfigured and comprised ten corners with several long straights.
On Saturday, Oliver qualified in seventh position and finished the race in 10th, collecting one championship point, while teammate Nelson qualified in 13th and finished in 12th. On Sunday Oliver improved in qualifying to set the sixth fastest time, whilst his team-mate had to settle for a ninth row start from 18th. In the race, Oliver dropped to 9th in the opening laps and finished in that position. Nelson made up six positions to cross the line in 12th.
The rounds in Berlin mark the end of the European part of the season. The championship will resume on 15-16 July when it visits New York for the first time for another double-header event.
Oliver Turvey (Car #88)
“It was a shame to miss out on Super Pole on both days as we were very close, especially today when we missed out by just a tenth of a second. This track didn’t seem to suit our package so well, therefore I tried to get everything out of qualifying and put us in the best place we could be. Clearly the results are not ideal, but we still managed to collect three points, which is a reasonable result considering the challenges we faced.”
Nelson Piquet Jr (Car #3)
“We knew it would be a tough track for us here and we are disappointed that we were not able to get any championship points from Berlin. We wanted to try to go for Fastest Lap today but unfortunately there was not the opportunity to do that. We will focus now on the next race and hope that the track in New York suits us better.”
Gérry Hughes, Team Principal
“This weekend has not seen us achieve the results that we all wanted at this stage in the season. The Tempelhof circuit layout does not appear to suit the performance characteristics of the NextEV NIO Formula E chassis and both drivers and the team had a challenging weekend as a result. However, Oliver had a solid race today and collected a further two championship points but we now need to focus on the double header in New York where we will be aiming to achieve much stronger results as a team; both in Qualifying and Race trim.”
