Nobody to blame in Mercedes crash according to De Vries: 'An unfortunate accident'

During the first E-Prix of Rome Nyck de Vries had good chances to score important points for the championship. That however came to an end when he crashed out in the closing stages of the race, along with teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.

Nyck de Vries travelled to Rome as the leader in the classification. This meant that the Dutchman had to start in the first qualification group, with the 8th starting spot as a result. Nevertheless, during the race, De Vries managed to fight his way back to the leaders.

In the closing stages of the race, it however went wrong for the Mercedes driver. While De Vries was driving in fifth place, teammate Stoffel Vandoorne ran into the wall, forcing the Dutchman to swerve and also ending up on the side. "I stayed on track, stayed out of trouble and actually had a solid race until then. it's a massive shame it ended up like that because I think we could have brought very big points home for the team and for us in the drivers' championship. It was a very unfortunate incident, but one we could do nothing about. It is the way it is," De Vries said in the Team Review of Mercedes.

Preparing for Sunday

The two Mercedes drivers do not have very long to study the incident anyway. Tomorrow is the second E-Prix of Rome. What the Dutchman can do in that race, he doesn't want to say too much about. "Tomorrow is a new day, and we get another chance."

The first race of the weekend in Rome was eventually won by Jean-Eric Vergne. Next to him on the podium were Sam Bird, who is the new leader in the standings, and Mitch Evans.