Edoardo Mortara Gives Venturi Victory in Second Race of Puebla E-Prix Weekend

Edoardo Mortara and the ROKiT Venturi Racing team played a perfect tactical battle to win race two of the Puebla E-Prix on Sunday, while Pascal Wehrlein lost more points thanks to another penalty having initially finished second.

Oliver Rowland started from pole position for Nissan e.dams, while Mortara jumped front row start Wehrlein to fall in behind the Briton in second.  When the attack mode zone opened, Rowland immediately took it, and when Wehrlein took his first attack mode, the Briton followed in to take his second as Nissan went aggressive on strategy.

Mortara now took over at the front, and the battle between Rowland and Wehrlein left him able to take his second attack mode and still come out in the lead. The Swiss racer then defended well from Wehrlein to hold onto the lead until the chequered flag, with his positioning around the banking putting him out of reach of the German lap after lap.

Wehrlein’s final gamble – to save energy and attempt to pass Mortara late on – was ruined when he ran wide at turn seven and lost more than one and a half seconds, allowing the Venturi driver to relax and secure his second Formula E win and the championship lead.

A mistake by Rowland saw him lose out on the final spot on the podium to a charging Nick Cassidy, with the Envision Virgin Racing driver securing his maiden top three finish of the season. 

However, it was not over for both Cassidy and Rowland as a time penalty for Wehrlein for maximum power over use relegated the Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team driver to fourth, promoting Cassidy to second and Rowland to third.

BMW i Andretti Autosport’s Jake Dennis took fifth for a second consecutive day, with the Briton coming out on top of a battle with Mahindra Racing’s Alex Lynn, with the second BMW of Maximilian Günther surviving having some advertising banner attaching itself to his car to claim seventh ahead of DS Techeetah’s Jean-Eric Vergne.   Vergne had looked as though he was on course for fourth only for an uncharacteristic spin at turn nine.

Mitch Evans took ninth place for Jaguar Racing, with René Rast taking the final point for Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler despite having started last after losing his lap time in Qualifying for re-joining the track in a dangerous manner.

Pre-race championship leader Robin Frijns climbed from twenty-first on the grid to finish just outside the points in eleventh, just ahead of Jaguar’s Sam Bird and Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team’s Stoffel Vandoorne as those at the head of the standings appeared to struggle.

Race one winner Lucas di Grassi had a far less successful Sunday as he was handed a drive-through penalty for colliding with Nyck de Vries, with the Dutchman retiring with damage to his Mercedes as a result.  Di Grassi would also have contact with Bird, while Norman Nato, António Félix da Costa, Alexander Sims, Oliver Turvey and Tom Blomqvist all retired.

Puebla E-Prix Race 2 Result