"An unfortunate accident..." - Taylor Barnard loses podium chances due to Wehrlein crash

Taylor Barnard has been one of the surprises of the season so far. The McLaren junior has already secured his first pole position in Jeddah, making him the youngest pole-sitter in Formula E history. In Monaco, he once again secured first place on the grid ahead of Saturday's race. However, Barnard was unable to convert this into a good race result - Pascal Wehrlein was partly responsible for this. The young Briton failed to score points in both races.

It was a difficult weekend for reigning world champion Wehrlein. He and his team lost many points in the direct duel for the top spots in the standings. Nevertheless, Wehrlein scored points in both races, once in sixth and once in seventh. The potential might have been even greater, but several contacts, a poor Sunday qualifying and an extremely slow pit stop prevented him from realising it. The accident with Barnard was probably nothing more than another disappointment for Wehrlein.

Barnard ends up in the wall of the Fairmont hairpin

Both Barnard and Wehrlein were running well in the top 10 until lap 24 of Saturday's race, and both had also activated their Attack Mode and were desperate to make up places. On the way to turn 5, Wehrlein tried to overtake Nick Cassidy. The New Zealander defended hard so that Wehrlein could not get past. He lost enough time for Barnard to attack directly behind him into the Fairmont hairpin.

The young Brit tried the outside in the battle for sixth place, but when the two were right next to each other at the apex of the corner, their wheels met. The McLaren was lifted slightly and slid straight into the wall. Wehrlein narrowly avoided the wall, but lost an important position to Edoardo Mortara. The stewards ruled it a "racing incident" and refrained from imposing further penalties.

While Wehrlein finished the race in 6th place, the collision cost Barnard everything - he crossed the line in 16th place. He was very disappointed: "The race looked really good until the contact. I had the most energy of anyone up front. The accident was unfortunate, unfortunately something like that can always happen", he told e-Formula.news. Wehrlein mentions the contact only briefly on his long list of things that went wrong in Monaco: "I had contact in turn 6, which caused us to lose positions again. The pace was good, so a lot more would have been possible."

Focus on the 2nd half of the season

Wehrlein also draws positive conclusions from the Monaco race weekend. At least Porsche now knows better where its own weaknesses lie: "It was clear to see this weekend that we had problems with tyre warm-up. We have a lot to analyse and want to learn from this in order to improve in the second half of the season." Porsche will have to make a big leap if they want to defend the drivers' title. Wehrlein is now 49 points behind Oliver Rowland in third place, although team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa is second.

Barnard found the potential for improvement more in himself after another points-less race on Sunday: "Looking ahead to Tokyo, we know we have the pace, we just need to have a better race to score points." Especially with McLaren set to pull out of Formula E and the team behind it needing a new major investor, good results are essential. The pole position impressed many. But the fact that it brought the only three points of the weekend was disappointing.

The next chance for a better points haul is in Tokyo in a week's time. Another double header will take place there on 17 and 18 May.