NEXTEV are hopeful that their slow start to the second season of the Formula E championship will not maintain throughout the course of the year.

The Chinese team were slow out of the blocks last year in Beijing, but as the team got more mileage on the car they were able to find a way to challenge for the championship later in the year.

Despite both Oliver Turvey and Nelson Piquet Jr qualifying outside the top ten, the team optimised the strategy well and got a hand from lady luck during the full course yellow to move both drivers into the points scoring positions.

Piquet Jr was running in ninth after the pit stops, but his car came to a stop on lap 17 with a technical issue. Last year’s champion managed to get the car going again, but it cost him his chance of scoring some world championship points.

Despite his defense of his crown not starting strongly, Piquet still believes that the team can improve on what they have if they work together.

“This weekend has been difficult. Coming from winning a championship to a whole new season with a new car that we have had some problems with this weekend has of course been frustrating.”

“But part of being a driver is sticking together, working with the team and getting out of the hole together. It’s not just about being quick, but about building up a team and being on their side.”

Turvey managed to hold onto his sixth place after the pit stop, with little threat from behind, which overall shows some positive signs for the team going into Malaysia.

The Brit was delighted to score some points after a difficult qualifying session.

“It was a great race; there was a bit of a mess at the start, so I went straight into energy saving mode. We were able to catch up at the end of the first stint as the cars in front were struggling on energy levels.”

“I managed to overtake Villeneuve, which I was happy about and then the full course yellow while we were in the pits helped us jump up a few places.”

“To get sixth here is a great result for me personally but also as after qualifying we were a bit disappointed with the pace of the car so the result was probably the best we could have achieved today,” said Turvey.

Team Principal Steven Lu, admits that the team does have work to do heading to Malaysia, but he is confident that they can resolve their issues.

“It has been a difficult weekend for us, but we will take the positives and work very hard before the next race in Malaysia on what we need to do to improve.”