After a year’s hiatus, the ABB FIA Formula E Championship returned to Punta Del Este, Uruguay, with Mahindra Racing lying second in both the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships. While both Nick Heidfeld and Felix Rosenqvist were eager to get going and start racking up their points once again, an unfavourable qualifying session saw Nick crash out during his hot lap, and Felix was only able to get as high as P14 while struggling with some tyre pressure issues. A set of penalties dished out up and down the order eventually dictated that Felix started from P12 and Nick from P17.
The start was clean for both drivers but by lap 2, Nick experienced a technical system error, the car shut down and he was forced to retire.
Rosenqvist dropped 2 positions at the start in an effort to keep his nose out of trouble and plan a charge through the pack in the cleanest and efficient way. Surely enough, tailed closely by the Jaguar of Mitch Evans, the pair charged up through the pack putting themselves in the top 10 in no time. Another lightning fast pitstop from Felix saw him gain another position on the Nio of Oliver Turvey.
A smart play in the efficiency game through the race took Mitch past Felix as well landing the Virgin of Alex Lynn in between the pair. 2 laps from the finish, Felix overtook the hard-defending Virgin to bring his car home in 5th place. Salvaging the best result possible from today’s race, it’s time to leave Central and South America behind and regroup, recalibrate, re-strategize and plot perfectly to wrestle the lead away from the team and driver at the top.
Mahindra pleased with its performance, ready for a strong second half of the season
Mahindra Racing is now still at 2nd position in the Teams’ Championship with 100 points, Felix stays at 2ndin the Drivers’ Championship at 79 points, Nick Heidfeld is 11th in Drivers’ Championship with 21 points.
“I’m quite pleased that we’re second in the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships halfway through the season. We’ve got a strong and race-winning car, we’ve had a consistent 3 and a half months. And this bodes well for us in the second half of season 4”, Team Principal Dilbagh Gill said.
“I was on track for a little but more than one lap. On lap 2 after the first chicane, I suddenly had no power, and I had to abort the race”, Nick Heidfeld added.
Felix Rosenqvist commented: “It was a tough, but fun race. Average start, I kept myself out of trouble. From initially not being too quick, we improved across the race and got really fast. Great pitstop, the second stint was really good, Mitch was behind me and we were really quick through the field. My lap beacon fell off, so I didn’t know how much energy to save or use during a lap so my lap indications were wrong and I was a bit lost. We did manage to recover in the end because we had a lot more energy. It was a potential podium, and we finished P5. But I’m still confident of the strong and quick car that we have.”
#PuntaDelEsteEPrix | Highlights
It took a brilliant drive from @FRosenqvist to finish fifth after having started the race in P12. The Swede’s performance helped us defend our second spot on the Season 4 team standings. #passioneering pic.twitter.com/UO5aSxD0WK
— Mahindra Racing (@MahindraRacing) March 21, 2018
