The Mahindra Racing team had a challenging race in Berlin, with Nick Heidfeld finishing in tenth, collecting one championship point, and Felix Rosenqvist crossing the line in 11th, just missing out on a points scoring position. Rosenqvist maintains third place in the Drivers’ Championship and Mahindra Racing remains in fourth place in the Constructors’ battle.
The day started out strong for Heidfeld, with the local hero topping the timesheets in free practice one
He was almost half a second clear of second-placed Sebastien Buemi. Unfortunately, he had a challenging qualifying session. After setting his best lap in group two, he had to settle for a seventh row start from 14th when all 20 drivers had set their times. Nick made a solid start to the race, maintaining position over the opening five laps, after which he began picking his way through the field. Heading into the last lap he was sitting in 11th but, after a tussle between Nelson Piquet Jr and Jose Maria Lopez went awry, Heidfeld was able to move up to the tenth position, collecting one championship point.
“It was a bit of a frustrating day but on the other hand, I had a lot of fun having so many battles. But you prefer to fight for a podium and not for tenth. But it’s even hard to talk about all the fights I had as there was so much going on. It makes a big difference at this circuit going either one lap shorter or longer than the others so that made for a lot of on-track fights. I’m looking forward to Zurich, which is a home race for me, and looking for us to be back in the fight there”, Heidfeld commented.
When your @MahindraRacing team get bored from too much work? and print this ? @Avengers #infinitywar pic.twitter.com/FP8d4e6dZT
— Nick Heidfeld (@NickHeidfeld) May 17, 2018
Rosenqvist qualified in group four where he put in a strong lap but just missed out on Super Pole by qualifying in sixth
That secured himself a third-row start. On the first lap of the 45-lap race, Felix locked up at turn one and went wide, falling back to 15th and making a points finish a battle from thereon. He was able to climb two places by the halfway point and then gained a further two positions after a fantastic pit stop from the team. The second stint saw more mid-pack battles with Felix tussling with his Formula E compatriots but he ultimately crossed the line just out of the points in 11th. The popular driver did win one of the coveted FanBoost votes.
“Overall it’s been a tough day. Qualifying was quite good. I put in a good lap and it was disappointing to miss out on Super Pole. In the race, I tried to make a move but I locked up going into turn one. It was a gamble and it was my fault but I think we would have struggled; we finished 45 seconds behind the leaders so that’s something we need to look at. Thanks to the fans for voting in FanBoost. Now we’ll look forward to Zurich”, Rosenqvist explained.
? from the #BerlinEPrix, a challenging race where we fought tooth and nail until the end. #passioneering pic.twitter.com/88yMQjPNrZ
— Mahindra Racing (@MahindraRacing) May 21, 2018
