Race Report: Formula E - Mexico City

Paul Jeffrey

Premium
Formula E Mexico.jpg

The Formula E field headed to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend - and a thrilling race ensued!

With the championship already hotting up even at this early stage of the season, it would be a dramatic race at the Formula E layout of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit in Mexico City, eventually falling the way of season 3 champion Lucas di Grassi, thanks to a bold last lap overtake of the battery power hindered Mahindra of ex-F1 star Pascal Wehrlein.

Di Grassi, 34, would be the ultimate beneficiary of a tense and incident packed EPrix in Mexico on Saturday afternoon, performing flawlessly for the Team Abt squad as he applied race long pressure on Formula E rookie Wehrlein, eventually forcing the young German into a mistake on the final lap that saw the Mahindra driver straightline turn three before eventually rejoining the circuit just ahead of his rival, only to find himself running out of battery power on the drag to the finish line, allowing di Grassi to nip ahead by a car length to record his first race victory of the season.

Unfortunately for Wehrlein, despite losing the race victory in literally the final few meters, the German would then suffer a post race sanction for his track cutting exploits, earning himself a five second time penalty that would drop his down to sixth in the final results.

Wehrlein's loss would be Edoardo Mortara's gain, with the demotion of the Mahindra driver promoting Mortara to the final step of the podium, just behind runner up Antonio Felix de Costa and ahead of arguably the star of the race - Jerome d’Ambrosio, who took a hard fought fourth place finish after storming his way through the field from a disappointing 19th on the starting grid.

The race itself would be one of self preservation for much of the field, with plenty of action and contract throughout the grid - the most spectacular of which would no doubt go to Nelson Piquet Jr and Jean-Eric Vergne. During the early stages of the race the two experienced rivals would come together when fighting in the lower reaches of the top ten, resulting in a spectacular accident as Piquet made contact with the rear of the defending Jean-Eric Vergne, shooting into the air and clipping the rear of Alexander Sims.

The resultant debris spread across the circuit would ultimately cause the race to be red flagged for over half an hour, before the field reformed minus the unlucky trio for another shot at putting on a show for the Mexican crowd.

Part two would see Wehrlein resume the event from the front of the pack, however the German would be closely shadowed by Williams reserve Oliver Rowland and di Grassi, before the Brazilian former champion used all his skill and experience to outfox Rowland and resume the fight for the race victory, one he would take in the very closing seconds of a race that had plenty of action from start to finish.

Sadly for series rookie Rowland, his strong showing would eventually come to nothing as the Englishman ground to a halt in the final moments, joining fellow driver Sebastien Buemi in running out of battery energy on the penultimate lap - eventually classifying outside the points in 22nd and 23rd place respectively.

Oh and guess what? I avoided spoilers too! You're welcome :)

Provisional Race Results
  1. Lucas di Grassi
  2. Antonio Felix da Costa
  3. Edoardo Mortara
  4. Jérôme d'Ambrosio
  5. Andre Lotterer
  6. Pascal Wehrlein
  7. Mitch Evans
  8. Felipe Massa
  9. Sam Bird
  10. Daniel Abt
  11. Robin Frijns
  12. Oliver Turvey
  13. Jean-Eric Vergne
  14. Alexander Sims
  15. Tom Dillmann
  16. Gary Paffett
  17. Jose Maria Lopez
  18. Stoffel Vandoorne
  19. Felipe Nasr
  20. Oliver Rowland
  21. Sébastien Buemi
DNF Nelson Piquet Jr

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Last edited:
D

Deleted member 205301

  • Deleted member 205301

What a finish !!
That was a typical FE race : some messes, some contacts, nt a lot of overtakings, some penalties, and a "strange" finish, with some cars with no energy (so all these efforts for nothing), typical ;)
@++
...and this time, Piquet crashed but it didn't help his teamate^^ (bad habits)
 

apex11

@Simberia
Stunning race. I have seen plenty of races end that way due to running out of fuel.
I think Pascal is the real deal and explains why Lewis would never of wanted him as a team mate.

So they get fan boost, so what Lewis gets 'engine mode' whenever he needs to pass or steal pole... if you don't like fan boost then you can't like 'engine modes'...
 
D

Deleted member 387850

  • Deleted member 387850

Absolutely cracking race, really built up to quite the finish! I've dipped in and out of FE over the last couple of years but decided I'd follow a full season once Gen 2 arrived. I haven't been disappointed, the races have been fantastic and I'm a total convert. Always room in my life for more quality racing regardless of what it's powered by ;)
 
Awesome finish. Thought wherlin was unlucky to be demoted to 6th.

Did anyone see that youtuber commentary show? I hated it but thought it was quite interesting that they are trying something different to engage a younger audience.
 
In my opinion, this race was once again anti-advertising for Formula E and I think I'm not alone.

As a driver, I could not anticipate the variable braking zone of my opponents due to the variable recuperation. We see a lot of contact between the cars, Piquets Crash was a tough one and I blame the technology. It is not allowing close racing

Despite riding on a real racetrack compared to at least the inner-city routes, the race mechanics reminded me more of a kart race with my drunken happy friends on the weekend than a race held by professionals. I see it can be entertaining for some, but not for me.

Drive-thru penalty for early use of the fanboost, why was that even possible ? That should be controlled by the race control through software. The same software that sends the permission to use the fan-boost after the vote is finished. I see the responsibility at the event organization and not at the driver.

The sense of being able to use the attack zones under safety car is beyond my understanding.

I have nothing against electric cars, i just think this series is still very immature and does not do the drivers justice.
 

apex11

@Simberia
In my opinion, this race was once again anti-advertising for Formula E and I think I'm not alone.

As a driver, I could not anticipate the variable braking zone of my opponents due to the variable recuperation. We see a lot of contact between the cars, Piquets Crash was a tough one and I blame the technology. It is not allowing close racing

Despite riding on a real racetrack compared to at least the inner-city routes, the race mechanics reminded me more of a kart race with my drunken happy friends on the weekend than a race held by professionals. I see it can be entertaining for some, but not for me.

Drive-thru penalty for early use of the fanboost, why was that even possible ? That should be controlled by the race control through software. The same software that sends the permission to use the fan-boost after the vote is finished. I see the responsibility at the event organization and not at the driver.

The sense of being able to use the attack zones under safety car is beyond my understanding.

I have nothing against electric cars, i just think this series is still very immature and does not do the drivers justice.


You are right, good job no other series have crashes or contact, i doubt they would he half as popular as they are if they had crashes......
 

Jayblue

Premium
Thoroughly enjoyed the race. I watch it to be entertained and there was not a dull moment! Much prefer the new Gen 2 cars, they actually look fast now and the finish was spectacular.
 
The race was a good one but what we have learned here?
what we have learned from this race and the season so far :

1.we should not vote vandoorne and massa for fanboost! this "fanboost and how and when to activating it" is ruining their brains , so far two fanboost penalty for massa and vandoorne(all of them was drive through if i remember correctly) , if you want them shine, don't vote for them!
2. best way to overtake is to push "the driver in front" off track in chicane area to force them cut the chicane, so there will be two consequences:
A. if the driver wanted to stop-go(slows down massively) after cutting the chicane to avoid the penalty, it will be an easy pass for you and others! as he is driving under 20km/h , so he will loose more than 1 places.
B. if the driver in front doesn't want to slow down after cutting the chicane, he will get 5 sec penalty , easy pass again for you and also the driver in front will loose more than 1 places ! and also replay of that particular incident won't be broadcasted , they will only show that checkerd flag pass not the chicane incident (weird)
3. chances are high that still i don't have any idea what i'm talking about:D:confused:
 
...I think Pascal is the real deal and explains why Lewis would never of wanted him as a team mate...

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao: Yeah, you are right. Thats why i have alot of doubts Merc will drop Bottas and take Ocon in 2020 :p

Concerning Wehrlein - he only needs focus regardless of bad luck in last 2 races, and he'll get victory asap, its absolutely clear! After all look at experienced JEV and his string of 4 lost races...;)
 
if you don't like fan boost then you can't like 'engine modes'...
what? that doesnt make sense, a party/engine mode is something teams get if they have a very good engine and put a lot of effort and work into it. Fanboost is just an unfair advantage popular drivers get, it doesnt even matter if they are good or not
 

apex11

@Simberia
what? that doesnt make sense, a party/engine mode is something teams get if they have a very good engine and put a lot of effort and work into it. Fanboost is just an unfair advantage popular drivers get, it doesnt even matter if they are good or not

I agree, but the fact they get a boost is no different to an engine mode, the reason someone passes someone else, or catches up to someone else is the boost increase....
Makes for exciting racing....but doesn't mean the driver is doing much else other than an unfair advantage..... that is my point...
 
And OUCH they really need to sort that website out.

A headline on their front page about a really exciting race that just happened, and a link at the top about the results of the previous race.

Both links take you to an empty page about a Hong Kong race that hasn't happened yet.

https://www.fiaformulae.com/

Do yourself a favour Formula E!
 
what? that doesnt make sense, a party/engine mode is something teams get if they have a very good engine and put a lot of effort and work into it. Fanboost is just an unfair advantage popular drivers get, it doesnt even matter if they are good or not
Everyone complaining about fan boost but it isnt a good mushroom type of boost
 

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