Andre Lotterer finished the 2018-2019 Formula E season’s 11th race, the Swiss ePrix, in fourth place, but he was stripped of this result and scored in 13th.
DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne dominated the 11th race of the 13-race 2018-2019 Formula E season, the Swiss ePrix, at Bern Street Circuit, and teammate Andre Lotterer finished in fourth place to complete a near perfect race for the leaders of the team standings.
However, after this 31-lap race around the 14-turn, 1.657-mile (2.667-kilometer) Bern Street Circuit temporary street circuit in Bern, Switzerland concluded, Lotterer was issued a 22-second time penalty that stripped him of his fourth place finish.
Lotterer was issued this 22-second time penalty as a result of the fact that he exited the pits when the pit exit light was red after he came into the pits for repairs following the eight-car crash on the opening lap of the race. Article 37.1 of the rule book states that a driver can only exit the pits when this light is green.
Here is what Lotterer had to say about this penalty, according to Motorsport.
"“So what happened was after the incident [at Turn 1], normally when there is a red flag you go in the pitlane, but then the message came after to not go in the pitlane, [but] I ended up in the pitlane [as he was already there]. I asked ‘what should I do’ and then the team got the message that [said] all cars should join the queue [on the start/finish straight]. So I asked a few times and they said ‘yes, join the queue’. [I] went through the red light thinking that was what we had to do.“The whole track was red [flagged after the Turn 1 pile-up]. But we thought [exiting the pitlane] was what the race director asked us to do to help [the restart] procedures. Then the stewards gave me a 22-second penalty. It was extremely harsh because if anything it just helped [the officials] and it didn’t change anything. That’s how racing is nowadays – it’s not really about the sport but it’s about the rules.”"
As a result, the 37-year-old German was scored in 13th place, and he lost that 12 points that he had initially earned in this race.
The drivers who originally finished the race from fifth through 11th place were each promoted by one position because of this penalty, and they each gained points as a result of it.
Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird originally finished the race in fifth place and scored 10 points, but he was promoted to fourth and scored 12. Geox Dragon Racing’s Maximilian Gunther originally finished the race in sixth and scored eight points, but he was promoted to fifth and scored 10. Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Daniel Abt originally finished the race in seventh and scored six points, but he was promoted to sixth and scored eight.
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Panasonic Jaguar Racing’s Alex Lynn originally finished the race in eighth place and scored four points, but he was promoted to seventh and scored six. Venturi’s Felipe Massa originally finished the race in ninth and scored two points, but he was promoted to eighth and scored four.
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler’s Lucas di Grassi originally finished the race in 10th place and scored one point, but he was promoted to ninth and scored two. Finally, HWA Racelab’s Stoffel Vandoorne originally finished the race in 11th and failed to score any points, but he was promoted to 10th and scored one.
None of the other drivers who competed in this race had their point totals affected by any other post-race penalty.
The race’s original 12th place finisher, BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Antonio Felix da Costa, was also issued a post-race penalty and was scored in 14th as a result of it, and the race’s original 13th place finisher, Geox Dragon Racing’s Jose Maria Lopez, was disqualified from the race and thus scored in 22nd (last).
As a result, the drivers who originally finished the race in 14th and 15th place, BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Alexander Sims and Mahindra Racing’s Jerome d’Ambrosio, were officially scored in 11th and 12th, respectively. The drivers who originally finished from 16th through 22nd were each promoted by one position. None of them scored any points in this race before or after these penalties were enforced.
Here is how the final results of the 2019 Swiss ePrix at Bern Street Circuit look following Lotterer’s 22-second time penalty.
NOTE: Drivers listed in italics were not scored where they originally finished.
Race Results
1st – Jean-Eric Vergne
2nd – Mitch Evans
3rd – Sebastien Buemi
4th – Sam Bird
5th – Maximilian Gunther
6th – Daniel Abt
7th – Alex Lynn
8th – Felipe Massa
9th – Lucas di Grassi
10th – Stoffel Vandoorne
11th – Alexander Sims
12th – Jerome d’Ambrosio
13th – Andre Lotterer
14th – Antonio Felix da Costa
15th – Tom Dillmann
16th – Oliver Turvey
17th – Gary Paffett
18th – Oliver Rowland
19th – Pascal Wehrlein
20th – Edoardo Mortara
21st – Robin Frijns
22nd – Jose Maria Lopez
Andre Lotterer’s post-Swiss ePrix 22-second time penalty and the 12-point loss that he incurred in the Formula E driver standings along with it severely damaged any chance that he had of winning the 2018-2019 championship heading into the season’s final two races, the two races of the New York City ePrix, in mid-July.