Stephane Sarrazin crossed the finish line in first place in the final round of the championship in London, only to be given a time penalty of 49 seconds after using more energy than he was allowed.

The French driver was in a nail-biting fight with Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird for victory in the final few laps of the London ePrix. However, Sarrazin told Formula E Zone that there was a miscommunication as well as radio problems in the final few laps.

The Venturi driver was told to put the car into a higher power setting which enabled him to fight with Bird until the end of the race. The thing the team didn’t realise is that Sarrazin would not make the finish line with the allowed energy usage. As a result, the 39-year-old was given a time penalty.

“We had an issue with the radio, there was a radio miscommunication which made me go over the limit on energy. It was a mistake, but we have had a difficult season and we have improved which you can see as I was very fast today and I was quite happy in the race.”

“The team told me to push in the fight with Bird. They told me I have enough energy left to fight him to the finish, but it was not the case,” said Sarrazin.

Despite, the negative feeling of having the race win stripped away from him, The Toyota World Endurance Championship driver was happy with how the team has progressed over the last three rounds and hopes that they can continue this good form into developing next season’s car.

“There are a lot of positives to take away from this round and the last few rounds, we have been very fast recently but we have had so many issues this season. However, staying positive, Venturi are a brand new team and we have learnt a lot this year and I think we have made a good step to fight for victories next season.”