Venturi’s Nick Heidfeld wants to celebrate with his team on the podium next time, after he was promoted to third place in the Moscow ePrix following Sebastien Buemi’s post-race penalty.
The German driver was running fifth when he caught Buemi and Andretti’s Jean-Eric Vergne as they were battling for third. With both drivers slowing after Buemi cut the chicane, Heidfeld was able to nip by Vergne as the Frenchman also backed off.
When Buemi was subsequently penalised for an unsafe pitstop release, Heidfeld’s fourth place became third.
Heidfeld said: “I was happy to finish fourth having started eighth and then it was nice to be promoted to third but it would have been better to be on the podium at the time, especially for the whole team to celebrate.
“At the end of the race I was catching them quickly and as everyone knows they had a little tangle in the chicane and I was lucky that Vergne only focussed on Buemi and I came flying from behind when they were together, I don’t know exactly what they were up to. I got up the inside of Vergne and touched the back of Buemi in Turn 11. It was nothing serious and we ended up finishing the race like this.”
The result has promoted Venturi into eighth in the team standings ahead of Mahindra Racing.