Sebastien Buemi rues 'silly mistake' after victory-costing Mexico first corner blunder

Sebastien Buemi has described his opening-corner blunder as a "silly mistake" to be learned from after immediately losing the lead in Formula E’s Mexico City E-Prix.

Buemi rolled back the years ahead of Formula E’s 150th race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and secured an impressive pole position, matching Jean-Éric Vergne’s record of 17 poles.

Across practice and qualifying, Buemi showed excellent pace and arguably boasted the strongest performance on the grid in 300kW.

Unfortunately, the Season 2 champion made a costly error at the first corner while trying to defend against DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard, failing to make Turn 1 and dropping to the back of the field.

Reflecting on the mistake, Buemi believes he should have let Barnard through and settled for second place.

Addressing what happened at the first corner, Buemi told RacingNews365: "Yeah, I had a slow start, and I couldn't really see him –  he was a bit in my dead spot. And I just didn't want to give up the position because it's not so easy to pass.

"In hindsight, I should have just accepted to give it up and be P2. There was not much I could do on the start; the start [off the line] was worse. 

"Should have just accepted P2. And, yeah, paid a big price, silly mistake."

After falling to the back, Buemi did recover to sixth, only to have to pit due to a slow puncture, resulting in no points being scored in the race – he did score three for claiming pole. 

Nevertheless, it was a weekend the veteran could take much confidence from having not shown such strong pace for many years.

Discussing his strong pace all weekend, Buemi said: "Yeah, for a long time, I don't remember having had so much pace. So it's good that it's hard to accept, when you have such a good car and you leave with only three points.

"But, yeah, not much we can do. We have to move on. It doesn't mean we're going to be good [like this] again, but it's a good sign. So let's keep pushing and learn from the mistakes."