Mitch Evans has addressed escaping a major title fight scare after being "drilled" by Dan Ticktum in Formula E's Sanya E-Prix.
The championship leader had struggled throughout practice on China's Hainan Island but found strong pace in qualifying to secure third on the grid.
He remained among the leading group for the opening two-thirds of the race, with six minutes of Attack Mode remaining and good energy to mount a late charge to the front. A top-five finish looked, at the very least, a likely outcome, if not a podium.
However, on lap 18, the 31-year-old was hit hard from behind at Turn 6 by Ticktum, who was caught out by the cars ahead slowing and launched over the back of the New Zealander's Jaguar.
A lap later, Evans locked wheels with Lola's Zane Maloney at the Turn 9 hairpin after receiving a light nudge from Sébastien Buemi and caused a momentary blockage. It was followed by an unusual red flag. Evans suffered little damage from the hairpin incident, but major repairs were required after the Ticktum collision.
Evans' rear wing was completely torn off, while his right-rear suspension was bent. Jaguar hastily repaired the car during the stoppage but was prevented from rejoining the race without a rear wing fitted. Oddly, other cars were allowed to continue with damage.
Once the rear wing had been fitted, Evans had fallen a lap down after the restart and eventually finished at the back of the field.
Asked if the Ticktum incident was the defining moment, Evans told RacingNews365: "Yeah, because my right-rear suspension was completely bent and, obviously, the rear wing was off.
"I thought initially that I was okay, with no puncture or suspension damage, but once I got to the hairpin, the right rear was starting to give up. It kind of felt like I had a puncture, so I knew that, even without the red flag, I was going to have to box to repair it.
"So actually, in a way, the red flag, even though we were caught up in it, gave us a chance to try and fix the damage. The guys did an amazing job changing the right-rear suspension. We were about to go out, but then the FIA told us we couldn't leave because we had to put a new rear wing on.
"That process isn't super long, but it was long enough for me to go a lap down. I almost got back out on the lead lap to give ourselves a shot at recovering something, but yeah, it's a bit strange because you have cars leaving the garages in these situations without wings and stuff, yet for some reason they stopped us, which meant we couldn't get back out in time."
Evans 'unlucky but lucky'
Falling a lap down looked set to play a significant role in the title fight, with all the signs pointing to Evans' 19-point championship lead taking a serious hit.
However, in staggering circumstances, all three of his closest title rivals also failed to score a point. Edoardo Mortara retired after debris struck his pull loop and shut down his Mahindra, Oliver Rowland crashed, and Pascal Wehrlein finished 14th after receiving a penalty.
It meant that, despite a disastrous race, Evans' championship lead remained intact at 19 points heading into the Shanghai double-header in a fortnight.
Discussing whether he could count himself lucky that the top four all failed to score points, Evans added: "Yes and no. Lucky in that respect, but obviously unlucky to get drilled by Ticktum.
"It could have been a lot worse for me after what happened. My championship advantage could have completely disappeared.
"So it depends which way you look at it. Unlucky, but lucky in some ways. The way my brain works is that I look at the missed opportunity. We put ourselves in a great position to fight for the win. I had six minutes left, was good on energy, and it was all looking pretty good, to be honest.
"But on the other hand, I got lucky in other ways. So yeah, regardless, it could have been better, and it could have been worse."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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