Mexico City E-Prix: Wehrlein edges Lotterer to score breakthrough Porsche 1-2
Pascal Wehrlein led home a Porsche 1-2 finish in a thrilling Mexico City E-Prix, beating Andre Lotterer to take his and the German marque's first Formula E victory.
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Wehrlein had a difficult road to convert his pole position into victory, as Porsche elected to start saving energy early on in the race, losing the lead to championship leader Edoardo Mortara as the Venturi driver grabbed an excellent drive out of the Peraltada to clear the German at Turn 1.
The Porsches then continued to drop back, as Lotterer was mobbed by the DS Techeetah pair prior to Jean-Eric Vergne clearing Wehrlein.
Lotterer re-passed Antonio Felix da Costa after a slight skirmish in the Foro Sol stadium as the multiple Le Mans winner took attack mode.
Wehrlein was then given the hurry-up by his engineer to clear Vergne, as it became apparent that the Porsches had more useable energy than the front-running duo of Mortara and Vergne - a request that Wehrlein complied with a lap later.
That set Wehrlein up with a run on Mortara, who was about two percent down on useable energy, and his play for the lead at the start of lap 28 proved successful - Lotterer following through at Turn 3.
The Porsches then were able to scamper off into the distance, helped by a brilliant battle for third between Vergne, Mortara and Robin Frijns - who made some swashbuckling overtakes to stand in podium contention.
Although Lotterer was bearing down on Wehrlein, the leader was told not to "worry about the car behind" - Lotterer admitting after the race that Porsche had elected to "work as a team" to secure the victory.
Wehrlein crossed the line with one second left on the clock to add an extra lap to the ticker, causing more than a few energy consumption worries for multiple cars behind, but it proved no problem for the Porsches - who enjoyed an excellent crescendo to the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric, 1st position, Andre Lotterer, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric, 2nd position, take the chequered flag
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Vergne won the battle for third, passing Mortara for fourth on lap 36 after the Swiss driver endured a big lock-up and allowed the Techeetah duo to trickle past.
The Frenchman then cleared Frijns, who was at an energy disadvantage and dropped back towards the end - losing places to da Costa and Mortara.
Nyck de Vries endured a difficult race, but was able to take advantage of the energy worries of the cars around him to leap up to sixth at the death, also clearing countryman Frijns.
Sebastien Buemi and Maximilian Guenther also benefitted from their competitors' energy woes, which stopped a late-race resurgence from Oliver Rowland and also shuffled Mitch Evans and Sam Bird out of the points.
Jake Dennis had also struggled throughout the weekend, and was sitting in the lower midfield but was able to jump up the order - taking 10th after Lucas di Grassi was handed a five-second time penalty for contact with Stoffel Vandoorne early on in the race.
Vandoorne was another loser in the energy stakes, dropping out of the points - as did Nick Cassidy, who finished 13th despite a second-half streak through the points scorers after taking his attack modes later on compared to his rivals.
Results - Mexico City E-Prix
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