He has driven everything from Formula 1 to NASCAR to Rallycross – that made it really hard to really define Scott Speed as an FIA Formula E rookie at Miami yesterday.

But the American star certainly kicked off his electric rookie stripes in Miami with a stunning charge to second place after starting 10th on the grid.

Speed hounded race winner Nicolas Prost in the final laps and although he didn’t reach the top step of the podium, the American impressed many with his dramatic charge.

“In qualifying we got held up on both of our flying laps,” Speed said.

“We had much more speed than 10th place. So we knew we’d be coming forward. I started out on his strategy, which was to go one lap longer than everybody and it worked quite well.

“The problem we ended up having at the end was not battery – I had plenty of energy left – but we kept overheating. In any case, (Prost) played his strategy very good too.

“For the last two laps we were both at 100 percent power and I don’t think anyone had that same power. For both of us, going into corners at full speed when you don’t do that the whole race, was quite tricky. We had a lot of close calls, but it made the racing really nice.”

Speed enjoyed having team boss Michael Andretti “calling the race” for him on the radio in his FIA Formula E debut.

“Having a guy like Michael Andretti on the radio calling the race, someone with experience, who could talk to me like that, was fantastic,” Speed said.

“It’s the first time he’s done that and we’ll have him do that some more. With what we had, we really maximized our possibilities.”

Speed will again compete in Rallycross this year with the Andretti VW squad but also hopes to have more FIA Formula E outings – admitting he has studied the calendar and only identified one date clash. The Moscow round of the FIA Formula E championship clashes with the all-important X-Games in Austin, Texas at Circuit of the Americas.