Jean-Eric Vergne described his podium-costing penalty in the inaugural Misano E-Prix as the "most unfair" in his motorsport career, after he was judged at fault for an incident with Nick Cassidy. Vergne demonstrated great pace ahead of the race in Misano and secured second on the grid, before being amongst the frontrunners for the entirety of the race. On Lap 5, though, the French driver was judged by the FIA as having "caused a collision" with Cassidy, as the Jaguar driver brushed a wall and sustained damage whilst alongside him at Turns 8 and 9. The two-time Formula E champion received a five-second time penalty as a result, which demoted him from third to seventh after the race. Vergne was furious after the race and had no clue why he had been penalised, and added that when he has done something wrong, he is the first to admit that he "f****d up". "No I don't understand it, no one in the team does," Vergne told RacingNews365 . "And I'm the kind of driver when I have a penalty when I do something. a mistake, I am the first one to hold my hand up and say yeah I f****d up. "This is, I think, the most unfair penalty I've ever seen in my career to be fair. So we speak to the stewards to see what they have to say, but I mean, the evidence is quite clear. "I mean, if I didn't leave him [Cassidy] room, he would have ended up in the wall. So clearly, I gave him a lot of room and then I exit the corner clearly in front of him and he understeered into my car. So why is that my problem?"
Steward decisions 'magical'
Vergne finished the race with steering, front-wing and rear damage, the latter of which happened after Pascal Wehrlein "climbed" his car. In what was a race full of incidents, Vergne was the only lead driver to be penalised for a collision, with it again leading him to question the stewarding in Formula E. "I never ever receive any penalty, I don't crash into people," stressed Vergne. "I race clean and everybody basically hit my car today. No one received a penalty. "I'm being hit again and I receive a penalty for that. I mean, it's just it's magical."
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