Mortara Resists Vergne & Vandoorne For Berlin Win
Calum Gill 15:21 14/05/2022
Edoardo Mortara propelled himself back into Formula E championship contention after withstanding a late assault from Jean-Éric Vergne to win the first race of the Berlin E-Prix double-header weekend.
The Mercedes-powered Venturi of Mortara comfortably led the opening stages from his maiden pole position, with no clear challenger emerging until a charging Stoffel Vandoorne and Vergne threatened Mortarta’s win in the closing stages. When Mortara took his second and final attack mode, he dropped behind Vandoorne but wasted little time in overtaking him as he slipped through on the inside of Turn 6 with under 10 minutes of the race remaining. Vergne - Vandoorne’s likely 2023 team-mate at the newly allied DS Penske outfit - then passed Vandoorne at the same corner using fanboost and caught Mortara with three laps to go.
Mortara appeared to run wide at Turn 6 and Vergne lunged his way through, only to run wide and almost lose second place to Vandoorne and Porsche’s André Lotterer, who was able to join the podium fight. Their battle over second place allowed Mortara to spring clear and claim his second victory of the 2022 Formula E season, moving him up to fourth in the points table. Vergne hung onto second place ahead of Vandoorne, meaning the gap between the two drivers at the top of the drivers’ championship is down to just three points. Lotterer claimed fourth place ahead of Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, the second Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein and Evans’ Jaguar team-mate Sam Bird.
António Félix da Costa was fighting with his DS Techeetah team-mate Vergne in the opening stages but fell to eighth place at the chequered flag, ahead of Mahindra’s Alexander Sims - who dropped from second to ninth, but does secure his first points finish of the season. The final point went the way of defending champion Nyck de Vries whose recent tricky run continued. Oliver Rowland claimed 11th in the Mahindra, ahead of Envision title hopeful Robin Frijns, who had a horrid day finishing 12th.
Sébastien Buemi’s day promised a lot but delivered little as he was stripped of a place in the duels during qualifying and a slow getaway dropped him from 10th on the grid to 16th on the opening lap. The Nissan e.dams driver ultimately finished down in 14th place, sandwiched by Andretti's Jake Dennis and Oliver Askew. Oliver Turvey (NIO 333) was 16th, ahead of Sérgio Sette Camara (Dragon), Maximilian Günther (Nissan), Dan Ticktum (NIO 333) with Antonio Giovinazzi (Dragon) the last man running at the flag. Venturi's Lucas di Grassi and Envision's Nick Cassidy were the two retirements from the race.
