IN THE HEADLINES

POINTLESS PROST DENIED SCORE AGAIN

Nico Prost’s run of races without a point is now up to six, but the e.dams Renault man (above) deserved more than he went away with in Zurich. He qualified a commendable 0.023s behind team-mate Sebastien Buemi, and was running close to Jerome d’ambrosio when “the battery cut out under braking at the hairpin” and he went straight into the barriers, where “I couldn’t restart the car”.

BATTERY SENSOR IS LATEST LYNN DRAMA

Alex Lynn finished a lapped last after “we had a battery sensor fail with 10 laps to go in the first stint”. He had to nurse the car to the pitstops, and after that “strategically the race was done”. It was a tough day for Lynn as he was also given a three-place grid penalty for leaving his pitbox too early in qualifying.

UMBRELLAS CREATE HIGH-TECH SOLUTION

The enormous wooden structure that housed the teams’ garages and a host of corporate guests created a potential competitive advantage for some squads, as it shielded their cars from the sun. To ensure parity, and ward off complaints, the FIA allowed the other teams to cover the wheels of a car that made it through to superpole with umbrellas.

ABT ZAPPED BY PIQUET, AND WING FALLS OFF

Berlin winner Daniel Abt was brought down to earth with a bump from Jaguar’s Nelson Piquet on lap one. The duo collided as they went through the tight Turns 7/8 chicane, which caused the Audi driver’s rear wing to fall off and damaged Piquet’s front equivalent, and both were forced to pit for repairs. After an impressive 13-second rear-wing change, Abt rejoined but could only finish 13th, while Piquet retired after 20 laps with a broken driveshaft.