On the road to London: Jean-Éric Vergne
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Jean-Eric Vergne joined DS Virgin at the start of the second season after a mixed first season with Andretti. This season has been tough for the Frenchman, who has been regularly out performed by his team mate, but Vergne has managed to turn his season around since arriving in Europe.
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In the first race of the season, Vergne started well, getting into the Super Pole shoot out with the second fastest time in the group stage. His shoot out lap wasn’t so good, the Frenchman ruining the lap by locking up at the first corner, meaning he would start the race in fifth
The race was a different matter, though. Vergne’s energy management in the race was poor and he couldn’t fight against the drivers around him with more available energy. He finished twelfth.
It was another frustrating weekend for Vergne. After qualifying thirteenth, the Frenchman was ready to make up places in the race. The race turned out to be non-existent for the Virgin driver, though, when it ended after a crash at the first corner of the first lap.
Whilst his team mate was qualifying inside the top three, Vergne suffered a frustrating qualifying after hitting traffic on his 200kW lap. The Frenchman started the race seventeenth but all was not lost. A clean, trouble free race saw Vergne cross the line in seventh after making up an amazing ten places over the course of the race.
Vergne headed into qualifying blind after food poisoning ruled him out of the practice sessions. He managed to qualify fifteenth but another quiet race enabled him to move up to eleventh, just missing out on points.
Vergne’s Mexican ePrix started well with a sixth place in the qualifying session. The Frenchman just missed out on the Super Pole shoot out but started the highest he had since the season opener.
It all fell apart during the race, though, when an overtaking attempt on Loic Duval sent him into a spin and he lost eleven places. Car one was damaged and technical problems with the second car slowed the pit stop. He finished sixteenth.
It was another quiet, disappointing race for Vergne. After qualifying eleventh, the Frenchman couldn’t keep the place. He finished the race a disappointing thirteenth.
Vergne was aiming to turn his season around in Paris and it was immediately clear the change of attitude paid off. The Frenchman finished second in the group stages of qualifying, but could only take third in the Super Pole shoot out.
In the race, he quickly moved up to second, setting up a race long bettle with team mate Bird. Vergne ended up on top after Bird came under pressure from drivers behind, and the Frenchman finished second in his home race, his first podium of the season.
The positive atmosphere continued into Berlin where Vergne took his first pole position of the season with a time 0.016 seconds faster than Buemi.
Vergne was able to keep the lead of the race from Buemi early on, but the championship contender managed to get past him on lap six, followed by both Abt drivers and Prost. He finished fifth.
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After the difficult start to the season, Vergne seems to have found his rhythm. The Frenchman arrives in London eleventh in the championship and, if he can continue the momentum from Berlin and qualify high, the two places could boost him into the top ten in the championship.
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Image courtesy of Rajan Jangda
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