Lapped drivers interfere in the battle for Formula E race victory in Berlin: "Really weird"

After the final safety car, the entire Formula E field was close together in Saturday's race at the Berlin E-Prix. A fierce battle for the points ensued. Right in the thick of it: Several lapped drivers, who were not shown blue flags and so got involved in the position battles. After the race, many drivers had a clear opinion on the actions of the race director.

No blue flags during the pit stop window, in which the drivers had to make their Pit Boost - this was communicated to the drivers in advance. The lap at Tempelhof was so short that the drivers lost almost an entire lap during their 34-second mandatory pit stop. With blue flags, they would have had to let the following drivers past, which would have meant a considerable loss of time. Nevertheless, these were not shown even after the last mandatory pit stop.

"There were no blue flags, which was unusual: I drove through the attack zone and Sette Camara was in front of me", race winner Mitch Evans explained a situation from the final phase in the post-race press conference. "It wasn't ideal because I was struggling with braking problems. It was unusual that they switched off the blue flags for the whole race instead of just for the pit stop window. That didn't make it easy for us. I think other people suffered more because of that, but it was strange."

"I found really weird what happened there," agrees Pascal Wehrlein. "I lost a lot of time behind him (Sette Camara). There should have been blue flags, but there were none. I think he was told on the radio. But we don't even know what the rules are when the message comes over the radio. He should have got out of the way in the first corner."

Günther: "That's completely unacceptable!"

"I have a clear opinion on this: That's completely unacceptable," Max Günther clarifies in an interview with e-Formula.news. "Many people have lost a lot of time. For me, it is quite simple: in the pit stop window, you can talk about saying that there are no blue flags for six or seven laps because of the pit stops. As soon as the window is over, there should be blue flags again, just like in any normal car race. That was not the case today and led to a lot of bad moments."

"I didn't understand that," explains Sebastien Buemi when asked by e-Formula.news. "Of course I lost a bit of time there. We had discussed beforehand that there would be no blue flags in the pit stop window. But after that there are." Nico Müller also agrees with him in an interview with us: "In the end you do need blue flags so that people who are no longer fighting for positions stay out of it."

However, this problem will not arise in Sunday's race: There will be no Pit Boost pit stop here.