Redemption Day for Wehrlein as Porsche Take First Formula E Victory

It’s only the third race of the season and we have yet another 1-2, this time coming from Tag Heuer Porsche, with both the team and Pascal Wehrlein taking their first win in the series. Mexico has often been a race to forget for the German, where 3 years ago he lost the race in the final straight by 0.220 seconds to Di Grassi after running out of energy, and last year he was disqualified after taking P1 for an improper use of Fanboost during the race.

Teammate André Lotterer finished just behind in P2, with the pair reaching the chequered flag 9 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, with Vergne taking DS Techeetah’s first podium of Season 8.

Edoardo Mortara was on track for pole position, before a slide just before the finish line caused him to lose traction, and he finished 2 tenths down on Wehrlein. As the lights went green in Mexico, he got a better start and tried to go up the inside, but Wehrlein managed to defend. Chaos ensued as we went 3 wide in turns 3 and 9, with Vandoorne getting off to an aggressive start. Vergne skimmed the wall, but no damage was caused to his car.

3 minutes down and Alexander Sims had stopped in Foro Sol, appearing to not have any damage to his Mahindra, but it was later understood this was due to a mechanical problem.

Lotterer was the first to activate attack mode at 39 minutes with the sensor being on the left side of the Foro Sol section; handy for the drivers as there is the possibility, they can keep track position whilst gaining the extra power. Frijns overtook fellow Dutchman De Vries, and this time there was no contact between the two who have collided twice previously in Mexico.

Mortara took the lead of the race at 36 minutes, as although the 3 front runners all had attack mode, Wehrlein appeared to back off as he had less energy and didn’t put up much of a fight. Günther and Di Grassi had a minor collision at Turn 11, putting them both under investigation but nothing came of it.

DS Techeetah appeared to have incredible pace at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with Vergne battling it out with Lotterer. In attack mode, the Frenchman tried down the inside of Lotterer but stayed close behind, before overtaking him into turn 9, with teammate Da Costa following him. Just a minute later, Vergne overtook Wehrlein for P2.

Wehrlein took his second attack mode at 28 minutes, but a nudge from Da Costa caused damage to the DS Techeetah, as he lost the front left wheel cover in the process. Luckily, the body work came off and Da Costa didn’t need to pit to have it removed. As a result, he lost two places and dropped down to P6.

With 20 minutes left of the E-Prix, the top 6 were separated by just 3.3 seconds. Giovinazzi, De Vries, Vandoorne, Da Costa and Di Grassi were all given Fanboost for the rest of the race. Unfortunately, Giovinazzi DNF and therefore wasn’t able to use his extra power. With just 15 seconds of his attack mode remaining, Robin Frijns made a move down the straight on Da Costa and took P5.

Di Grassi then made a bold lunge down the inside of Nick Cassidy, pushing him wide, with Stoffel Vandoorne making the most of this and getting past both cars. Di Grassi, under pressure from De Vries as they approached the stadium, used his Fanboost to defend. Cassidy, the only driver to not activate either attack modes with 19 minutes left, finally activated it, but not before both Mercedes EQs and Mitch Evans managed to get past him, dropping him down to P11.

Just 15 minutes remained of the race, and it was both Porsches in P3 and P4 who still had 37% energy. 2% more than race leader Mortara. It was with this extra energy that Wehrlein got past Vergne, with Lotterer and Frijns swiftly getting past too.

Soon after, Wehrlein was chasing down Mortara and once again sent it down the start/finish straight, retaking P1. Lotterer followed again too, taking P2 into turn 3, following the same formation they had used overtaking Vergne just a few minutes prior.

With just 2 minutes remaining, Mortara began to slip down the field, as Frijns, Vergne and Da Costa all overtook him. Vergne and Da Costa then took P3 and P4, as Mortara got back past Frijns into turn 3.

Just as the clock ticked down to 0, the two Porsches crossed the line, meaning we would get in 2 more laps of racing. This was bad news for Evans, Rowland and Bird who had all miscalculated their energy, and started their last 2 laps on just 3%.

But it was the two Porsches of Wehrlein and Lotterer who finished a staggering 9 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, with Pascal Wehrlein finally getting his redemption in Mexico by taking the win. Nyck De Vries finished P6 after finding his way up from P12, with many of the grid finishing close to 0% energy.

Once again, a disappointing race for Jaguar. Perhaps a combination of strong competition and confusing race strategy has placed them a lot further down in the standings than they would like. A slow start to the season, but I’m sure they’ll be able to find their pace when it comes to Rome in April.

Speaking of pace, let’s talk about DS Techeetah. Not only were the drivers performing a lot better than in Diriyah, but the cars seemed incredibly fast, and we’re now back to seeing them towards the front of the grid, with surely a win in sight soon.

Even though the season has just started, we’re going to have no Formula E for almost a month, with the next race being a double header in Rome at the start of April after 2 races were canceled due to Covid. If the beginning of the season is anything to go by, it could be chaos!