Jean-Eric Vergne believes Techeetah laid down a marker of a sign of things to come after narrowly missing out on winning the opening race of the season in Saudi Arabia.

It was almost the perfect start to Vergne’s championship defence as after starting in fifth, the Frenchmen fought his way past Jose Maria Lopez and Sebastien Buemi to move up into second.

Then Vergne came up behind Antonio Felix Da Costa, who started on pole for the opening round of season five, but Vergne dispatched him easily around the outside of Turn 1 to take the lead.

It looked certain that he would win the race after passing Da Costa, but it wasn’t to be as he received a drive-through penalty for exceeding the 200kW usage. Despite this, Vergne was able to fight back through the field and finish in second place

“Today was just a taster of what is to come from Techeetah. The course was so much fun to drive, it was like walking on a cloud out there.

“I’m very pleased that the FIA and Formula E took our feedback around Attack mode n board after the Drivers’ Briefing as it made a very good race today. I’m very proud to be part of a championship that keeps innovating and re-inventing itself like this.

“We put on a great show, and as we aim for more podiums and our first win of the season, I’m confident that we will continue to deliver some very exciting racing for the rest of the championship. We’re going to absorb all the lessons, continue in this spirit and come back for more,” said Vergne.