Long live Mexico! This has been the cry that has resounded in Stuttgart, in the middle of February 13. And it is that the Porsche project in Formula E is beginning to pay off. In fact, Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche celebrated their first win in the electric series after winning the Mexico City ePrix. Perfect day for the German firm with pole position from Wehrlein and a second place from André Lotterer that puts the icing on the cake. Jean-Eric Vergne has closed the podium at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez after another chaotic race.
Pascal Wehrlein asserted his pole position in a clean start to stay at the head of the group ahead of Edo Mortara. He remained the leader of Formula E between the two single-seaters of the Porsche team, since André Lotterer maintained third position ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne and António Félix Da Costa. Behind, Nick Cassidy won eighth position from Stoffel Vandoorne in a first lap that passed without major incidents. In fact, the initial twists passed in an atmosphere of certain caution among the race leaders.
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André Lotterer broke this trend by activating attack mode for the first time thanks to the small gap that the Porsche driver achieved with the DS drivers, a maneuver that Edo Mortara imitated one turn later to protect position. almost parallel, Robin Frijns launched a perfect attack on Nyck de Vries to get past the Mercedes driver and place sixth. Two turns later Edo Mortara took the lead of the race by overtaking Pascal Wehrlein when the two already had the extra power mode activated.
Nick Cassidy followed in the footsteps of his partner Robin Frijns and also gave an account of Nyck de Vries just over ten minutes into the race, a maneuver that Stoffel Vandoorne also carried out on his boxing partner in the end. In front, Mortara managed to amass enough income to control his two immediate pursuers, even if the Porsche drivers still had the last few seconds of attack mode to spend. In fact, André Lotterer dropped slightly from the fight for the podium after being overtaken by Jean-Eric Vergne and António Félix Da Costa in just two corners.
Jean-Eric Vergne’s comeback led him to also overtake Pascal Wehrlein to place his DS E-Tense FE21 in second position. The Porsche driver responded by activating the ‘attack mode’ for the second time in a maneuver that ended with a little touch with Da Costa. The Portuguese’s left front wheel cover ended up falling off and the Portuguese lost position with Robin Frijns. He managed to recover Da Costa to return the overtaking while Edo Mortara consumed his second ‘attack mode’ to retain the lead.
Robin Frijns managed to win fifth place from Da Costa with a maneuver to the limit that gave way to the last third of the race. almost without rest, Pascal Wehrlein and André Lotterer put their single-seaters back on the podium after consecutively beating Jean-Eric Vergne. Robin Frijns followed in the footsteps of the two Porsche drivers, but the ‘counterattack’ of the Stuttgart firm’s drivers did not end there. Pascal Wehrlein managed to pass Edo Mortara to get back to the front of the race. And André Lotterer followed in his footsteps.
The two Porsche drivers were running away from their rivals, not least because Robin Frijns also beat Edo Mortara in a maneuver that made both pilots lose a lot of time. In fact, the Swiss driver was immersed in a battle with the DS single-seaters that perhaps did not go with him. And besides, he was defeated. Jean-Eric Vergne and António Félix Da Costa accounted for the leader to take Edo to sixth position. The two DS drivers also reported a Robin Frijns who was beginning to falter.
Despite filming alone and without opposition, Pascal Wehrlein and André Lotterer crossed the finish line for the penultimate time with two seconds remaining for the end of the race time, which in practical terms It meant going an extra round. With many single-seaters agonizing from lack of energy and drivers who had to lift their feet to avoid being stranded on the track, the last moments of the race became absolute chaos with fights in all parts of the group. And this played in favor of the pilots with Mercedes machinery.
In front, Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche secured their first win in Formula E, a success that André Lotterer rounded off with his second place. Behind both, although nine seconds behind, Jean-Eric Vergne crossed the finish line to achieve his first podium of the season. Almost in his wake, his partner António Félix Da Costa was fourth. Edo Mortara saved the fifth position, while the champion Nyck de Vries managed to dodge several rivals with almost no energy in their cars to suddenly climb to sixth position. Robin Frijns, Sébastien Buemi, Maximilian Günther and Jake Dennis closed the final ‘top 10’.