Wehrlein Leads Porsche 1-2 In Mexico City
Calum Gill 23:17 12/02/2022
Porsche finally scored its first Formula E victory as Pascal Wehrlein led team-mate André Lotterer in a 1-2 in Mexico City.
In the first half of the race it seemed that Porsche was on course for another race pace capitulation as championship leader Edoardo Mortara thrust his Venturi past polesitter Wehrlein into the lead at the start of lap seven. Both Wehrlein and Lotterer were also demoted by Jean-Éric Vergne during the attack mode sequences. But rather than continuing to fall back, the Porsches rallied late on as they had conserved more energy than most of the opposition. With a quarter of an hour of the race to go, Wehrlein and Lotterer went past first Vergne in quick succession than leader Mortara to assume a 1-2 formation.
As a wild variety of useable energy situations played out in their wake - not helped by Wehrlein extending the race distance by one lap by crossing the line one second before the 45-minute cut-off - the Porsches simply stormed clear and crossed the line 9 seconds clear of their rivals. Wehrlein’s long awaited first FE victory came in the nation where he’d twice been denied before: pipped on the finish line by Lucas di Grassi at Mexico City in 2019 when racing for Mahindra, and then disqualified on a technicality after winning at Puebla with Porsche last year. Lotterer - who is still to win in FE - tucked in behind his team-mate for the final laps and guaranteed Porsche its 1-2, making clear he had held back from challenging.
Vergne and DS Techeetah teammate António Félix da Costa fought back through to third and fourth as Mortara and Robin Frijns fell back to fifth and seventh having been fighting for the last podium spot until the closing laps. Mortara continues to lead the points. The works Mercedes again lacked race pace, with reigning champion Nyck de Vries shuffled right outside the points for a while. He recovered to sixth as others ran low on energy, but a late collision with Lucas di Grassi left his team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne classified 11th.
Di Grassi had contact with Maximilian Günther, Nick Cassidy and Vandoorne on the way to eighth on the road for Venturi, with a 5 seconds penalty for the last incident dropping him to 12th. That meant Nissan e.dams team-mates Sébastien Buemi and Günther, and Andretti driver Jake Dennis completed the scorers.
Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland and Jaguar pair Mitch Evans and Sam Bird had all made late charges into the points only to run dramatically low on energy when the race went onto its surprise extra lap. They plunged down the order. Formula 1 convert Antonio Giovinazzi showed stronger pace than in Saudi Arabia but retired at half-distance after an early pit visit. Alexander Sims was the other retirement for Mahindra, pulling off the circuit in the Foro Sol on the second lap with a mechanical issue.
