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Gary Paffett had a weekend of mixed fortunes at HWA RACELAB’s home race in Berlin as he progressed through to the super pole shootout in qualifying, securing fourth place on the grid, before a troublesome Berlin E-Prix meant he wasn’t able to secure any points in Germany.
Gary Paffett and his HWA RACELAB squad got the weekend underway with two practice sessions on Friday afternoon, where Gary was able to get up to speed with the unique demands of the former Tempelhof Airport - such as a concrete track surface as opposed to the asphalt found on the rest of the calendar.
Heading into Saturday’s race day, Gary and the team enjoyed the perfect start to the day in qualifying. With Gary being drawn into group 4 for his qualifying, he was able to finish at the top of the group in 1st place and progressed through to his second super pole appearance of the season. Eventually qualifying in 4th place, Gary put himself on the second row of the grid and was excellently placed heading into the race.
At the start of the race, Gary was able to hold his position at the start of the race but was soon hit with a stroke of bad luck on the fourth lap of the race. Battling with Alex Lynn, Lynn was able to get down the inside of Gary under braking for Turn 9. Not conceding the position, Gary was run out of road on the exit and clipped the outside wall - this melee resulted in Gary losing a further two positions.
With damage to his car, he was unable to match the pace he had been showing and began to drop away from the front of the field. Falling outside of the points, Gary eventually came home in 16th place to round off a disappointing race in Berlin.
"That was a disappointing race for me. After all, I started from P4. The start was really good, but I then hit the wall while trying to avoid another car. I immediately lost a few positions there. After that, for whatever reason, I lacked pace for the rest of the race. Furthermore, I struggled a lot with the balance of the car."
The next round of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship takes the paddock to Switzerland for the Julius Bär Swiss E-Prix on 22nd June in Bern.
