Sam Bird keeping his feet on the ground despite leading Formula E Drivers’ Championship

Bird currently leads the Drivers’ Championship for Sir Richard Branson’s DS Virgin Racing

Sam Wakefield
Friday 12 January 2018 17:35 GMT
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Sam Bird celebrates a race win in Hong Kong
Sam Bird celebrates a race win in Hong Kong (Getty)

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Britain’s Sam Bird is keeping his feet firmly planted despite leading the Formula E Drivers’ Championship ahead of the season’s third E-Prix in Marrakesh this weekend.

Formula E returns this weekend, moving from Asia to Africa with the third E-Prix of the season taking place at the semi-permanent Circuit Moulay El Hassan in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Bird currently leads the Drivers’ Championship for Sir Richard Branson’s DS Virgin Racing team after winning the opening race of the season in Hong Kong and following up with a hard-fought fifth place in the second race despite suffering a pre-race grid penalty.

And despite being the man the rest of the paddock are gunning for at this early stage, the 30-year-old Londoner insists that it is far too early for any talk of the title, despite his second-place finish at the Marrakesh venue last season.

“I’ve not really even thought about [leading the Drivers’ Championship] to be honest because we’re so early in the season,” he said. “It is a nice position to be in and it is great that I’ve scored good early points because it stops me playing catch-up.

“I’m not protecting anything right now. Come back to me in Week 8 or Week 9 and it will be a different story but at the moment I just want to keep scoring some good points.

“I don’t think this will suit us as much as Hong Kong did but second last year wasn’t too bad so there is no reason why we can’t go into this race feeling confident.”

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