Kiwi driver Brendon Hartley admits his Formula E debut "wasn't very successful,'' after a tough race in the season opener in Saudi Arabia.
Hartley finished 19th around the Riyadh street circuit, but encountered a few problems before the race even began.
The 30-year-old crashed during the first practice session on turn four, breaking the suspension in his Dragon Racing car and forcing him out of the rest of the session.
He only came out for two untimed laps, after his car was repaired during the second session.
During the race, Hartley received a drive-through penalty and had 10 seconds added to his race time for not using the full four minutes of his second attack-mode activation.
"It wasn't a very successful first day on the job," the Palmerston North driver told Autosport website.
"We had a crash in the first free practice - the track was breaking up.
"[That] meant we lost the last bit of time there and we didn't get out of free practice two, so we were kind of on the back foot.
"We thought we had some pace in the race, but it didn't turn out to be the case - we really struggled for pace and [Dragon is] now investigating why."
The race came almost a year to the day since Toro Rosso announced Hartley would not continue with the Formula One team in 2019.
Fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans finished 10th in the race, won by Britain's Sam Bird.
Hartley will have a chance at redemption in the second race at Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
