DS Virgin Racing won’t be able to challenge Renault for victory in Punta del Este tomorrow, says last year’s pole sitter Jean-Eric Vergne.

The Frenchman made his Formula E debut in Uruguay last year with the Andretti team. He was immediately incredibly fast, snatching pole position and, until a suspension failure in the final laps, very nearly the race win.

“Last year was pretty amazing, to come here and straight away make pole position,” Vergne said in a press conference at the Punta del Este track today. “It was a good debut. In the race I had a problem with the suspension with one or two laps to go, when I was fighting for the win. We didn’t get much luck.”

Having moved to DS Virgin Racing, whose powertrain has so far struggled to complete in both outright pace and energy efficiency, JEV believes this year will be a very different story. “I don’t think we’ve got the car to make pole position this year but we have a different objective. Our focus is clearly on the race and trying to maximise our chances.”

On the other side of the garage, Sam Bird will be hoping to score points here this weekend too, having had a torrid time at this event last year.