Evans furious after penalty 'disgrace': Stewards 'inconsistent consistently'

Mitch Evans remained furious after finishing on the podium in the second race of last weekend's Portland E-Prix, following his penalty the day prior which saw a victory taken away from him. 

The decision made by the stewards last Saturday is a "disgrace" in the eyes of Evans, who criticised its calls for being "inconsistent consistently". Evans is often incredibly honest and has offered his views on the stewards' verdicts multiple times this year. 

On this occasion, Evans received a five-second time penalty for contact with McLaren's Jake Hughes at high-speed, which several Formula E drivers disagree with. 

Evans had been behind Hughes whilst the McLaren driver ever so slightly moved across the front of the Jaguar driver after activating attack mode. Evans did not change the direction of his car, with the contact having been minimal but enough to cause Hughes to pit due to a puncture. 

Staggeringly, little time was taken by the stewards to reveal the time penalty, which demoted Evans from first to eighth after he crossed the finish line. 

It is a decision Evans wholeheartedly disagrees with, to the extent that he offered a passionate and angry take on what happened 24 hours later, whilst in the press conference for finishing the second race in P3. 

Penalty 'really hurts'

"I'm still frustrated," Evans stressed. "Honestly, I think that decision yesterday, it was a bit of a disgrace the end decision, but also in doing it in the race.

"That one really hurts and I'm really pissed off about it to be honest. So really not happy about that. So that's not going to overnight, it's not going to disappear. For that result [winning on Saturday], I'd be leading the championship right now.

"So I hope the guys in that room up there realise that, I've made it very obvious that I'm not happy. And I think we need to maybe internally discuss some of the processes that need to be done in the future.

"The consistency, I think it's becoming really inconsistent consistently, ironically. I'll try and leave it there, because the frustration is still very much in my blood."

As pointed out by Evans, he would have left Portland as the championship leader if it was not for the penalty. Instead, he sits 12 points behind team-mate Nick Cassidy with just the two races in the London finale remaining.