António Félix da Costa almost hit the wall when he was hit by Robin Frijns on the penultimate lap of the Berlin eP, but the stewards did not punish the Dutchman and caused anger in the DS Techeetah driver
A very dangerous scene attracted attention at the end of race 2 of the eP Berlin, the eighth round of the 2021/2022 Formula E season. On the penultimate lap, near the entrance to turn six, Antonio Félix da Costa was hit on the back of the car by Robin Frijns - who was fighting to overtake the Portuguese driver and take fifth position - and went straight into the wall. who was fighting to overtake the Portuguese driver and take fifth position - and drove straight into the wall, narrowly avoiding a high-speed accident.
Even so, Frijns received no punishment for the incident and kept his position, which made Da Costa furious. The Portuguese expressed his dissatisfaction with the stewards who decided not to intervene and even left a threat in the air.
"I went to see the commissioners and they just decided not to punish [Frijns], which for me was very strange," said Da Costa in an interview with the English website The Race. "If it's okay to hit someone in the middle of the straight, we will start to see some different types of contact from now on," he said.
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Da Costa also argued that the Envision driver himself recognized that he had made a mistake, but the race direction went in the opposite direction and chose not to punish the Dutch driver for the touch. Again, the Portuguese driver emphasized his disappointment with the stewards' inaction.
"I'm disappointed," he admitted. "I told them I was. But that's the way it is. Robin [Frijns] was the first one out of the car to apologize to me about ten times. He admits he was guilty, but they don't see that, so I was disappointed," he lamented.
On the other side of the situation, Frijns dismissed any kind of intention to hit his rival, but admitted that he went to apologize to the DS Techeetah driver after the race. In the Dutchman's opinion, the two moved at the same time, which made it impossible for Robin to change the direction of the car in order not to hit the rear of Da Costa.
"There was nothing intentional, there wouldn't be. He moved when I moved too and I touched him on the rear, it was really very unlucky," Frijns acknowledged. "As soon as I got out of the car, I apologized to him because that's not the way you want to gain a position. Let's just say the stewards were lucky today, that's all," he concluded.
Now, Formula E returns only next month for the debut of the eP in Jakarta, Indonesia, which makes its inaugural race in the category this year. The race - this time as a single round - is scheduled for June 4.