António Félix da Costa in the #28 BMW i Andretti Motorsport iFE.18 finished seventh in a rainy Formula E race on the streets of Paris on April 27. Once again his teammate Alexander Sims in car #27 did not finish; he was crashed out of the race by Nissan’s Oliver Rowland through no fault of his own.
The Paris race started behind the i8 safety car; rain fell much of the way, with a hailstorm at one point. There were a number of collisions. Félix da Costa started fourteenth and worked his way up to seventh, staying out of trouble. Rowland, who had started from the pole, fell back after hitting the wall on the second lap and went on to finish twelfth. He received a received a three-place grid penalty for the series’ next race for taking out Sims.
The win in Paris went to Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns, who became the eighth winner in eight races this season. Frijns leads drivers’ points going into the next race, to be run in Monaco on May 11. Félix da Costa’s six points in Paris left him third in the standings behind Frijns and Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer.
BMW i Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths said, “The race was like the April weather here in Paris. The 32 laps had pretty much all the turmoil you could imagine. Unfortunately, Alexander Sims got caught up in an accident that wasn’t his fault. He is having a tough time right now and just isn’t getting the luck he needs to experience a trouble-free race weekend. António put on a very mature performance. It was a shame that the difficult conditions in qualifying meant that we were unable to get the best speed out of the car. However, he worked his way through the field during the race and made the most of every chance he got when his competitors slipped up. The points he scored here could be very valuable at the end of the season.”—Brian Morgan
[Photo courtesy BMW AG.]
