"Very important points" - DS Penske overtakes Nissan in the team championship thanks to Vergne's podium

With a podium and a top five finish and a pole position by Jean-Eric Vergne, DS Penske climbed to third place in the teams' world championship at the penultimate weekend of the Formula E season in Portland. The battle for bronze with Andretti and Nissan continues to intensify ahead of the season finale in London. Vergne is satisfied with his strong race weekend.

Saturday at the Penske home race was particularly successful for Vergne. From 14th on the grid, he finished on the podium and scored half of all the points the team won in Portland. It was the third podium of the season for the Frenchman.

"Of course, you can't expect that when you start so far back," he said after the race. "That was very good for everyone. Especially for Jay (Penske; team principal) in his home race and for our partners." The decisive factor for the success was the team's strategic work and the fact that Vergne was not involved in any collisions.

Vergne: "My car still whole for the first time"

"I think it's the first time in these races that my car is still whole," jokes Vergne. On strategy, he explains: "We learn better with every race when the pace picks up. If you're not at the front, you're out and you can't come back either."

There are different strategies for this, he explains. Those who start at the front try to stay at the front as efficiently as possible. Those who start at the back try to save as much energy as the can and catch up later. "This window in which the pace is increased gets smaller with every race. We are currently within one lap," he explains.

"Safety car cost us the podium"

"I'm very happy with third place, these are very important points for the team," concluded the Frenchman. He added a few more points on the second day of the race. In qualifying, he secured three more championship points with his 17th pole position and is now once again the sole record holder in this statistic. However, Sunday's race did not go quite as smoothly as the day before.

As Vergne started the race from the front, the opposite strategy was used. However, this was disrupted by the safety car phase: "We were a bit unlucky with the safety car. That undoubtedly cost me a podium finish or even victory." Nevertheless, it was a strong fifth place, which, with two points from Stoffel Vandoorne, took the team to a total of 30 points on the Portland weekend.

Fight for 3rd place in the teams' championship comes to a head

In the teams' championship, DS Penske performed strongly compared to its direct rivals: Nissan scored no points at all in the absence of Oliver Rowland, and Andretti just half as many as the French-American team. As a result, DS took third place ahead of the season finale.

The gap to Jaguar and Porsche has long since been lost, which is why the focus is more on the rear and on defence. They are 16 points ahead of Andretti and 25 ahead of Nissan. Third place will be decided in just under two weeks' time at the season finale in London.