How Vergne kept his cool to triumph in spicy Indian Formula E encounter

The Formula E season script was torn up on the championship’s first visit to Hyderabad, as Jean-Eric Vergne held off Nick Cassidy and ended the Porsche-powered domination. With his first win in almost two years, DS-Penske's two-time champion produced a performance measured to perfection as others got their calculations wrong.

In the middle of the Hussain Sagar lake, which Hyderabad’s Formula E circuit overlooks as it sweeps along the waterfront, a statue of the Buddha dwarfs the surrounding landscape. His teachings encouraged the pursuit of a lifestyle free from desperate clinging to impermanent objects or phases, based on the notion that remaining tethered to them propagates an endless cycle of death and rebirth.

Today, Buddhism’s teachings of liberation are commonly associated with mindfulness and meditation. To truly find inner peace, the Buddha walked what became known as “the Middle Way” – the line between the extremes of hedonism and asceticism. It’s an expression of moderation, not denying oneself basic pleasures, but not overindulging in them either.

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Author Jake Boxall-Legge

Jake Boxall-Legge Autosport’s Technical Editor. Having studied Automotive Engineering with Motorsport at the University of Hertfordshire, West Country-born Jake's original ambition was to design racing cars. During a year between studies in which he accidentally rekindled a love of writing, he took up a Master's in Motorsport Engineering at Oxford Brookes. Halfway through his master's year, he was offered a place on the Autosport Academy, conducting occasional freelance duties before becoming the press officer for Formula 2 and GP3 in 2018. Autosport offered him a return to the fold later that year to serve as its Technical Editor. His voice appears on a number of videos and podcasts, and can often be found writing about terrible Formula 1 cars in excruciating detail. In his spare time, Jake enjoys baking and blames his failure to make it past the Great British Bake-Off interviews on his tenuous grasp on choux pastry. His dream is to open a brunch cafe - and his willingness to make outrageous puns in inappropriate situations has earned him the contempt of his colleagues.