An electric-car race in Germany last weekend had its start delayed by climate-change protesters who apparently were unaware the vehicles were not powered by petrol.

The breakaway climate-change group was protesting against the only sanctioned zero-emission electric motor racing world championship – certified as “net zero carbon” from its inception – and which has an electric safety car.

Members of the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) protest group – who also claimed responsibility for a protest at the Formula One British Grand Prix last year – climbed the safety fence and sat in front of race cars on the start line before being ushered away by security officials.

The protesters later took to social media platform Twitter to boast of their latest antics, even though stopping an electric-car race was clearly an own goal: “It’s time to slow down. Because we’re on the highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

It appears someone in the climate-change protest group forgot to check whether the race cars were powered by petrol or electricity.

The clue was in the name of the racing category – Formula E – in which the E stands for electricity.

If the climate-change protesters did know the race cars were electric, then it appears they were protesting against engineering prowess – a progression of the engineering knowhow that delivered the electrified trains that likely got the protesters to the race, for example.

The electric Formula E race was held at Berlin’s Tempelhof airport circuit on Sunday European time.

A statement from a Formula E representative said the protest was “unrelated to the event”.

“Security services quickly and safely contained the disruption (and) the event was able to proceed as planned.”