Pascal Wehrlein wins narrowly ahead of team-mate Andre Lotterer in Mexico City: Premier victory for Wehrlein and for Porsche – Mercedes weakens
Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein won the Mexico E-Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City on Saturday, scoring both his own and Porsche’s first race win in Formula E.
This had supposedly happened once before last year – also in Mexico, but Puebla. There, however, Wehrlein was disqualified immediately after crossing the finish line due to a rule violation.
In Mexico City, Wehrlein and Porsche have now made amends. In the only race on the 2022 Formula E calendar to be held on a permanent circuit, Wehrlein and team-mate Andre Lotterer managed their energy reserves better than the competition. That tipped the balance in the end.
“It’s a great satisfaction to have won here in Mexico. I’m happy for myself as well as for the team. Now let’s celebrate,” were Wehrlein’s first words. “I’ve been so close so many times, not least last year in Mexico. That’s why it feels incredible now. “
Wehrlein leads from pole – until Mortara surprises him
Wehrlein started the race from pole after the thrilling knockout qualifying. Edoardo Mortara (Venturi), who started from P2, got away a little better but was unable to pass Wehrlein before the first corner because he immediately pulled over to the right.
Lotterer held third place ahead of the DS-Techeetah duo Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa. After a few laps of waiting, Mortara struck: on the start/finish straight, he surprised front-runner Wehrlein with an attack, took the lead
Shortly after Wehrlein had lost the top position, team-mate Lotterer also lost ground. Both Vergne and Felix da Costa moved past to move up to third and fourth respectively. And DS-Techeetah’s forward momentum continued. Vergne also caught Wehrlein, taking over second position.
Felix da Costa catches up with Wehrlein
Before Felix da Costa also passed Wehrlein, there was a collision between the two in the stadium. Wehrlein had just decided to head for the attack mode zone. Felix da Costa drove up, damaged his front wing in the process and dropped back shortly afterwards.
In the order Mortara, Vergne, Wehrlein, Lotterer, Robin Frijns (Envision) and Felix da Costa started the second half of the race. But the front runners had not managed their energy reserves as well as the chasers. Vergne was the first to lose ground. One after the other, Wehrlein, Lotterer and Frijns passed the two-time Formula E champion and took up the chase of front-runner Mortara.
Final stage: Porsche strikes back twice
And with twelve minutes to go, Wehrlein took back the lead from Mortara on the start/finish straight with a very similar manoeuvre to the one he had lost to him earlier. A few corners later, Lotterer also passed the Venturi driver, giving Porsche the top two positions.
Mortara dropped back behind Frijns a few laps later and from then on was no longer on course for a podium, let alone victory. In the end, the Venturi driver, who had started as the leader of the standings, only finished fifth. As a small consolation, Mortara narrowly defended his lead in the standings with this result.
At the top, Wehrlein and Lotterer fought it out between themselves, with the internal order remaining unchanged. Wehrlein now has his first Formula E victory in the bag, Lotterer is still waiting for it. Third place behind the Porsche duo went to Vergne ahead of DS Techeetah teammate Felix da Costa, who narrowly missed out on the podium.
Mercedes weaken in Mexico
Defending champion Nyck de Vries (Mercedes), who had won the season opener in Riyadh, showed a comparatively unremarkable race, finishing P6. Team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was even more discreet, missing out on the points with P11.
Maximilian Günther (Nissan-e.dams) and Lucas di Grassi (Venturi) had a slight collision in the early stages of the race similar to the one between Wehrlein and Felix da Costa. After a five-second penalty, di Grassi was classified in P12, Günther in P9 directly behind team-mate Sebastien Buemi. This means that the two have scored the first points of the season for Nissan-e.dams.
Best placed of the three rookies in the field was once again former IndyCar driver Oliver Askew (Andretti) in P17, directly followed by Dan Ticktum (NIO) in P18. Not finishing was Antonio Giovinazzi (Dragon-Penske) as the third rookie in the field. Alexander Sims (Mahindra) also failed to see the chequered flag.
After the Mexico weekend with only one race, the 2022 Formula E calendar continues with one of the numerous double headers, namely two races in the city centre of Rome on 9/10 April.