Pace and penalties for Aguri at Long Beach

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What started out as a promising weekend for Team Aguri ended without any points. Antontio Felix Da Costa retired from the race and Salvador Duran could only finish fourteenth.

[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“I think there should be a small tolerance in the regulations on tyre pressures,” he said. “I didn’t gain any performance benefit and there is a big difference between starting 1st and 18th, but rules are rules.”[/pullquote]

 The Aguri car showed great pace throughout the morning, running towards the front of both free practice sessions. They went one better in qualifying with Da Costa securing pole in a close Super Pole shootout. That pole was soon stripped though, when Da Costa’s car was found to be just under the minimum tyre pressure. The Portuguese driver was sent to the back of the grid, disappointed, but accepted that rules are rules.

Da Costa made great progress through the race, fighting for ninth place before the midrace car swap and eventually getting past Virgin’s Jean-Eric Vergne for the position. He’d managed to take another position for eighth when, a few laps later, he was forced to retire from the raec with a bent track rod.

“The result is hard to swallow,” Da Costa said after the race. “I drove cleanly in qualifying and the race, and made a lot of ground. We were looking good for a solid points finish.”

Team mate Duran qualified fifteenth, and was also fighting his way back up through the field when he was penalised for over use of energy and had to perform a drive through towards the end of the race, demoting him to fourteenth.

[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Mark Preston, Team Principal of Team Aguri, commented: “Once again we have shown that we have race winning potential, and Antonio showed his amazing talent both in qualifying and the race.”[/pullquote]

So Team Aguri leaves America disappointed with the results, but sure that they have a car that can compete at the front of the grid. They’ll hope to be able to finish in positions that reflect that at Paris in three weeks’ time.

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Image courtesy of FIA Formula E Media

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