Citroën secures maiden pole in front of a sell-out Madrid crowd at the sixth round of the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship.
New race dynamics with one six-minute Attack Mode and the first Pit Boost during a single-header race shake up race strategy.
Recovery drive and hard-fought race amid contact and energy challenges.
Citroën showed strong early promise during the race weekend in Madrid, securing its first pole position of the season, marking a major milestone for the team at the first European race of the year.
At lights out, the race initially unfolded in a tightly packed peloton, with positions constantly changing in the opening laps. Starting from P18 following an incident where he was impeded in qualifying, Jean-Éric Vergne delivered an impressive early recovery, climbing to P9 by lap 5 with decisive overtakes whilst teammate, Nick Cassidy, set the pace from the front of the pack.
Unfortunately, Jean-Éric’s progress was halted following contact with DS Penske’s, Taylor Barnard, which caused significant damage to his car and resulted in a five-second time penalty for Taylor. From that point, the Frenchman’s race became increasingly difficult to manage.
Strategic elements came into play mid-race, with Attack Mode deployments including Vergne activating his on lap 16 but both Citroën drivers faced challenges in balancing performance and energy management on the demanding Madrid circuit.
Ultimately, Jean-Éric Vergne crossed the line in P14, while team-mate Cassidy finished P17, reflecting a frustrating outcome after a highly competitive start to the weekend.
Despite the result, the pace shown, particularly in qualifying and FP2, provides encouragement for the team as it looks to build momentum heading into the next round of the championship. In tandem, there is a shared understanding within the team that a detailed analysis is required to fully understand what compromised the race outcome this weekend. Identifying and addressing those factors, from race execution to energy management and on-track incidents, will be key to ensuring the same issues are avoided moving forward and that the car’s underlying performance can be consistently converted into strong results.
Citroën Racing Formula E Team Principal Cyril Blais said:
“There are mixed feelings after today. Taking pole position here in Madrid in front of such a great crowd is a strong result and shows the progress we’re making as a team. Unfortunately, a combination of damage, penalties and challenging energy management made it difficult to convert that pace into points.
“We started well and tried to manage energy from the front, but we lost ground during the pit stop phase and dropped back into the pack, which put us on the back foot. From there, it was a difficult race and contact for both drivers only made things even harder.
“It’s disappointing not to score any points during the race given our potential and pace in qualifying, but we’ll review everything in detail to understand what went wrong and come back stronger. The pace is there, and we’ll take the three points for pole position with Nick but now we need to execute better.”
Citroën Racing Formula E Team Driver Nick Cassidy said:
“It was an up and down day for me, but that’s Formula E. We did a great job in qualifying and the team gave me a really strong car, which was encouraging. The pace was there in the race as well, but we struggled a bit with overall efficiency, which made things more difficult as the race unfolded.
“I think we were unlucky with how the strategy played out, especially with how tight the pack was and how sensitive the energy management was today. We did pretty much everything we could with what we had, but small factors can make a big difference in this kind of race.
“It’s frustrating not to come away with a better result because the potential was definitely there, but we’ll take the learnings from this and focus on putting everything together next time.”
Citroën Racing Formula E Team Driver Jean-Éric Vergne said:
“Not a strong race for us unfortunately, which is frustrating because the team gave us a really competitive car both in qualifying and in the race. In qualifying, I was impeded on my final laps, which compromised my chances and meant I had to start from P18.
“The start of the race was actually quite positive, I was able to make up a lot of positions and fight my way up to P8, which showed the potential we had today. Unfortunately, that momentum was lost after contact with another driver, which caused significant damage to the car and effectively ended our chances of a strong result.
From that point on, it was about trying to manage the situation and bring the car home, but P14 is clearly not where we should be given the pace we had. It’s a race to forget, but we’ll take the positives, keep our heads high and come back fighting in the next one.”0
