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Vergne among seven drivers hit with post race penalties

Jean-Eric Vergne has been stripped of a podium finish as seven drivers earned post-race penalties after the second Diriyah E-Prix.

DS Techeetah’s Vergne was one of three drivers not to use Attack Mode twice during the Saturday race and his penalty means teammate Antonio Felix da Costa has claimed his first podium of the season.

The Attack Mode rules issued before the race must be adhered to, with all Attack Mode used prior to the end of the race, but cannot be activated during a safety car or other caution period.

For the second Diriyah race, Attack Mode must have been used twice for four minutes.

The race was cut roughly five minutes short due to a late accident for Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn. With the safety car being brought out before the race was red flagged, those who were waiting until late in the race to use their Attack Mode were left with no opportunity to activate it.

Vergne, Norman Nato, Tom Blomqvist and Rene Rast were all handed drive through penalties, which were converted into a time penalty of 24 seconds.

Blomqvist and Rast were each handed another 24-second penalty for speeding under Full Course Yellow conditions. Nick Cassidy was hit with the same penalty for the same offence, denying the Virgin driver his first points in Formula E.

Alexander Sims and Alex Lynn were both handed a drive through penalty converted to a 24 second time penalty for not respecting the homologated throttle map. This didn’t have an impact on Lynn’s race, but dropped Sims down to 15th.

Maximilian Gunther was also handed a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with Blomqvist, which he will take at the next race.

The amended results means Antonio Felix Da Costa takes third from his team-mate. Dragon/Penske Autosport due Sergio Sette Camara and Nico Muller were promoted to fourth and fifth.

Oliver Turvey claimed his best Formula E result since Berlin in the 2017/18 season with sixth while Oliver Rowland, Lucas Di Grassi, Nyck de Vries, and Pascal Wehrlein all finish inside the points. De Vries was awarded an additional point for fastest lap.

Bethonie Waring

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