Following a challenging weekend in Monaco, the Lola Yamaha ABT team will be looking to add more points to its current total in front of a home crowd for the team’s technical partner, Yamaha Motor Co.
Last year’s inaugural Tokyo E-Prix was loved by fans and drivers alike, therefore the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is returning for not one but two races in the heart of the Japanese Capital.
The 2.582km street circuit, which surrounds the Tokyo International Exhibition Centre, features 18 turns, three notable straights and high-speed combinations, set against the Tokyo skyline.
Lola Cars last competed in Japan in 2013, when Rebellion Racing’s Lola B12/60 finished on the podium in the Six Hours of Fuji. Japan was also the location of Lola's last F1 podium in 1990 when Aguri Suzuki crossed the Suzuka finish line in third place in the Larousse Lola LC90.
“It was a frustrating day today with qualifying being cancelled. We started towards the back of the grid and fought our way to the midfield but unfortunately we didn’t manage to score points. However, with another race tomorrow which we hope is dry, we reset and try to make all the support from our friends from Yamaha here in Japan count and make them proud.”
“The team’s first race in Tokyo was quite disappointing. We had very good pace in FP2 in the 300kW laps, which we focused on during the session and therefore didn’t run any laps in 350kW. Unfortunately, qualifying didn’t happen which meant we took our FP2 positions for the grid and started quite far back. In the race, we struggled for a little bit of pace in general when it mattered. With another race tomorrow that might be dry, we can hopefully we have a more positive home race for Yamaha.”
“It’s been a tough day for us and not the result we would have wanted at the home race of our technical partner, Yamaha. Despite good pace in 300kW in FP2, the lack of running in the higher power setting meant when the session was used to set the grid we started towards the back and with the challenging on-track positions it was very hard to make up places. We will come back tomorrow stronger and even more focused on scoring points in front of the fantastic Japanese fans.”
“We had a good start to the day with quite a decent performance in FP2. Zane was third quickest in 300kW but then with the cancellation of qualifying it was a difficult position for us to start in, making it impossible to score points. We saw only one driver who started out of the top 10 on the grid finish in the points, all the others struggled like we did. Tomorrow is a new day which we expect to be dry so – maximum attack.”The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship continues tomorrow for the second Tokyo E-Prix of the weekend.
