BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver, Alex Sims, said that high energy consumption cost him a win in the opening Formula E round in Diriyah.

Sims had a great start to the day, taking pole position for the Diriyah E-Prix, and controlled the early stages, but he slowly fell down the order after using his Attack mode later than his rivals, and being unable to gain a big enough gap.

He eventually crossed the line in eighth place, and the 31-year-old was disappointed to finish the race so far down the order, stating that he was using too much energy.

“When you start from pole position, you are obviously hoping for more than eighth place.” commented Sims after the race.

“The early stages actually went pretty well, but I noticed relatively early on that I was having to use too much energy to keep the cars behind me at bay.

“We clearly did not have the same speed as our rivals over the full race distance.”

Sims added that he was driving too carefully in the closing stages of the race, and on the last lap, he fell from fifth to eighth after Nyck De Vries made an aggressive move on him for fourth, with the pair making contact.

“Unfortunately, we were then a little too conservative with our energy management in the final few laps, and I then lost a few places as a result of a tough but fair manoeuvre from Nick de Vries on the final lap.

“All in all, not a perfect day – and one that we must analyse looking ahead to tomorrow’s race.”

BMW i Andretti Motorsport Team Principal, Roger Griffiths added that they lost the win because they could not maintain the control on the rest of the leading pack in the second half of the race.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to convert Alexander Sims’ fantastic performance in qualifying into the good race result it deserved.” said Griffiths.

“We were able to control the field at first, but the longer the race went on, the more problems we had matching the speed of the chasing pack.

“That cost us in the end.

“Our job is now to learn from today’s race and to come back stronger tomorrow.

“We have shown what speed the BMW iFE.20 has. We must now put that into practice in the race.”