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Da Costa disqualified from Monaco E-Prix; more penalties handed out

BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Antonio Felix da Costa has been disqualified from the Formula E Monaco E-Prix after he was deemed to have used too much power in the race.

Da Costa had been originally classified in sixth place, 16 seconds behind race winner Jean-Eric Vergne.

However, he was placed under investigation in the latter stages of the race for power over usage.

The Portuguese was recorded using 228kW of power on laps 50 and 51 of the 51-lap race.

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler’s Daniel Abt was a driver who would have benefitted from da Costa’s penalty but the German driver has also been penalised post race.

Abt was deemed to have caused a collision with NIO’s Oliver Turvey at Turn 1 of the Monaco E-Prix which caused Turvey to retire from the race.

He has therefore been given a drive through penalty converted to a time penalty of 33 seconds.

The two penalties mean Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans moves into sixth place with DS Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer, Jaguar’s Alex Lynn, HWA’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Dragon Racing’s Jose Maria Lopez completing the top 10.

Abt is now classified in 15th place.

Da Costa’s BMW team-mate Sims has also been penalised post-race after it was deemed he caused a collision when Lucas di Grassi hit the barriers.

Sims has been given a five place grid drop for the Berlin E-Prix, along with Envision Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns.

Frijns was deemed to have caused a collision with Sims at Turn 1 which ended the Dutch driver’s race and sent Sims into a spin.

Meanwhile, Vergne was fined €5000 for not wearing safety belts correctly after the end of the race during the cool down lap.

Mahindra Racing protested Vergne’s win and Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland (second) after the race, alleging tyre pressures were not above 1.4 bars.

The protest was rejected with the stewards document stating: “The Protest was on time and in form. The Protest fee was paid correctly. The Protest was NOT addressed to the Chairman of the Stewards (Article 13.5.1 of ISC). The Protest was lodged against a driver and NOT against a competitor.”

The final technical report, signed off by FIA technical delegate Laurent Arnaud, confirmed that tyres used and camber was checked after the race for the top three drivers and all cars were found in compliance of the regulations. 

Jack Amey

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