OLIVER Rowland finished 16th on a ‘disappointing’ weekend of Formula E in Madrid and will now have more than a month to wait until the next races.

The 32-year-old from Penistone qualified in eighth but received a drive-through penalty for overpower at the race start which put him to the back of the field.

He slipped down four places in the overall standings to seventh, 34 points off top.

Rowland said: “It was a tricky weekend with mixed weather throughout. I felt good in both free practice sessions and managed to get through to the duels in qualifying, which was a target I had set for myself. We started the E-Prix well, being very efficient before we received the drive-through. The pace still felt good throughout, so without the penalty we could’ve been challenging further forward. It’s disappointing but we now need to understand why the technical issue happened and put it right for the remainder of the season.”

Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal, Nissan Formula E Team, said: “On Oli’s side, he could’ve been fighting for the top positions today without the drive-through penalty. It is very disappointing as the team did a great job and we definitely had the pace to score strong points. We will use the break between now and Berlin to look into these technical issues to avoid them happening again.”

There is now a long break until the next meeting in Berlin on May 2 and 3. There are 11 races left in total finishing with a double-header in August in London.