FE champion Vergne 'hungry for more' after Ad Diriyah defeat

Defending Formula E champion Jean-Eric Vergne says he is heading into this weekend's Marrakesh E-Prix "hungry for more" after narrowly missing out on victory in last month's Ad Diriyah season-opener.

Vergne bounced back from a mid-race drive-through penalty following a software issue to finish second in the Ad Diriyah E-Prix behind Antonio Felix da Costa, having tried and failed to find a way past the BMW driver on the final lap of the race.

The pace of DS Techeetah left much of the field tipping Vergne's team as the early pace-setter in Season 5, but the Frenchman is eager to prove these credentials in Marrakesh this weekend.

"Being so close to the victory in the first round has left me very hungry for more, and it’s what my focus is all about right now," Vergne said.

"Marrakesh hasn’t been a good track for us in the past so I’m hoping that we can change that and leave Morocco on a high note this year.

"It still a very long way to go and we know that we need to continue to be razor sharp for the rest of the season."

Techeetah team principal Mark Preston was left pleased with how the new partnership with DS played out on debut in Ad Diriyah, but remained wary looking ahead to the race in Marrakesh.

"We had a really good first race together as a new team, and it was a proud moment to watch everything come together during the race weekend," Preston said.

"We definitely had our challenges, and I think we pretty much had every curve ball there was thrown at us, but the team handled them very well and came out on top.

“Ad Diriyah was a great start to the season for us but we now look to our next challenge, the Marrakesh E-Prix which we believe will shake up the grid further.

"Having raced at the circuit previously will give us some advantage but as it’s the first time that we take the DS E-TENSE FE19 there, we will have a lot of work to do."