Edoardo Mortara was briefly in the lead at the Formula E race in Mexico – Then he fell back to fifth place – Reason: the wrong strategy
Edoardo Mortara continues to lead the 2022 Formula E standings after finishing fifth in Mexico. The race winner in Saudi Arabia was briefly in the lead on the shortened version of the Formula 1 circuit, but was unable to convert the placing into a victory due to a wrong strategy
On lap 8, the Swiss with Italian roots shot past Pascal Wehrlein to spectacularly take over first place. Immediately, the Venturi driver pulled away at the front. At race half-time, however, Mortara was then put under pressure by Jean-Eric Vergne, while the two Porsches of Wehrlein and Andre Lotterer really turned up the heat.
Porsche took the lead, managed the race at the front and took a one-two. According to Mortara, Venturi expected a 40-lap race, but the team did not react adequately to the Porsche strategy. “We expected it, but reacted too late to the extra lap strategy compared to the others. “
“The others started it earlier, which makes a big difference in terms of energy,” explained the Venturi driver. “It’s difficult because I don’t think we had the right strategy from the start.” In addition, there were the duels with Vergne and Robin Frijns, which would have cost Mortara additional energy. That’s why he only managed fifth place in the end.
The duel with Vergne in particular catapulted Mortara out of contention for victory, as he subsequently had an energy deficit compared to Porsche and DS-Techeetah. “We used a lot of energy there and were at the mercy of our rivals until the end. They pushed me to use too much energy – especially Robin at the end.”
The last ten laps of the Mexico round were “difficult”, which is why Mortara experienced a “problematic race”, he said. “Fifth place is not the end of the world in the end,” he admits. “But we have to do better in the next race.” Mortara extended his championship lead with fifth place. He is now five points ahead of defending champion Nyck de Vries, who finished sixth.
