On the road to London: Nelson Piquet Jr

It was a tough weekend for Piquet: a sign of what to come. The Brazilian screwed up his qualifying lap, which put him at the back of the grid.

For most of the first stint, he stayed there, but took advantage of a full course yellow to jump up to ninth. It looked like he might be able to recover from his dismal weekend when another problem dropped him back through the pack. He finished fifteenth, the last of the finishers.

It was another challenging race for Piquet, but this one came with rewards. The Brazilian managed to qualify sixteenth.

Putrajaya was the first time we saw Piquet’s exceptional energy management skills, when he stayed out longer than anybody else. Taking advantage of problems for drivers ahead of him, Piquet managed to finish inside the points: P8.

Qualifying in Uruguay saw improvement for Piquet. The Brazilian just missed out on the top ten, qualifying twelfth.

Again, Piquet stayed out longer than anybody else and left the midrace car swap hopeful of points. Piquet was battling against Jean-Eric Vergne in the closing stages of the race, but the reigning champion lost the back end of his car on the final lap, finishing in the wall.

NEXTEV were expecting improvements in Argentina, but those left a lot to be desired. Piquet saw some improvement in qualifying, when he bagged himself ninth on the grid, but the race wasn’t so fantastic.

Piquet spent most of the first stint near the back of the field. A safety car just after the mid race car swap took away the energy saving advantage he hoped for. He finished twelfth.

Mexico City was next up, with Formula E visiting the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the first time. Piquet had a spectacular crash in qualifying which meant he had to start from the back of the grid.

He was once again able to show strong battery management skills, moving up to P14 by the end of the race.

Piquet had some good memories from Long Beach but he wasn’t set to make any more in the season two visit. The Brazilian qualified fifteenth, but was handed a ten place grid penalty for changing his electric motor, meaning he’d start from the back of the grid.

It made for a difficult race for Piquet, who spent most of the race at the back of the field before retiring in the closing stages.

The weekend started well for Piquet, qualifying ninth for the second time that season. In the race, the usual difficulties continued, when Piquet was forced to pit early due to loss of power. That meant there wasn’t enough energy in his second car to finish the race.

Piquet took his season best qualifying in Berlin, promoted to fifth on the grid after disqualifications ahead of him.

The Brazilian had to pit early again due to damage caused by the bollards at the first chicane. The pit stop to change the car’s nose ended any chance of taking points from the race and he finished thirteenth.