Formula E

Andretti wins first race of Formula E’s Gen3 era with Dennis

by Matt Beer
8 min read

Jake Dennis escaped from his rivals to give Porsche’s customer team Andretti a commanding win in the first race for Formula E’s Gen3 cars at Mexico City.

The new era got off to a faltering start as most of the opening 10 laps were run behind the safety car.

First Abt driver Robin Frijns ran into the back of Norman Nato’s Nissan at the new chicane, sustaining a wrist injury in the process.

Then a miserable weekend for Sam Bird ended up when his Jaguar parked on the inside at the first corner having suffered what he quickly diagnosed as a driveshaft breakage at the restart, prompting the safety car to immediately go back out.

Surprise polesitter Lucas di Grassi didn’t spend too much green-flag running in the race lead, as a slip through the first corners allowed Dennis to attack and pass into the Turn 3 left-hander on lap 12.

Dennis simply ran away from the field thereafter, getting enough of an advantage to take both his attack modes without relinquishing first place and winning by nearly eight seconds.

A third safety car period – this time for Edoardo Mortara spinning his Maserati into the Turn 1 wall while running 14th – didn’t ruffle Dennis but did trigger the race distance being extended by five laps to 41.

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Di Grassi’s Mahindra was registering 2% less energy than his main rivals from early in the race and spent the closing laps under huge pressure.

Last year’s Mexico winner Pascal Wehrlein managed to slip through into second and give Porsche a 1-2 as the factory team followed its customer home at an ever-increasing distance.

But di Grassi superbly resisted a queue of four cars to hang on to the final podium spot.

McLaren’s Jake Hughes was his main challenger, but was wrong-footed by Dennis’s Andretti team-mate Andre Lotterer on the last lap and pushed back to fifth on his illustrious team’s FE debut.

Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa (who made it four Porsches in the top seven) completed the pack on di Grassi’s tail in sixth and seventh.

Mitch Evans salvaged eighth from Jaguar’s poor weekend, with reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne only 10th behind Nick Cassidy after DS Penske’s underwhelming qualifying.

Vandoorne’s team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne ended the race without a front wing and appeared to run out of energy as he crossed the line, falling to 12th.

Nissan rookie Sacha Fenestraz was a top-six contender for most of the race before fading to 15th.

After his sensational fifth place in qualifying, Dan Ticktum quickly picked up a drivethrough penalty for his NIO 333 going over the power limit. He was also penalised for gaining an advantage by going off track and is under investigation for a possible safety car procedure infringement. He was classified a distant 17th.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Jake Dennis Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 41 30 58m25.974s 1m14.195s 0 26
2 Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 41 0 +7.816s 1m14.345s 0 18
3 Lucas Di Grassi Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 41 11 +18.611s 1m14.315s 0 18
4 André Lotterer Avalanche Andretti Porsche 99X Electric 41 0 +19.161s 1m14.538s 0 12
5 Jake Hughes NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 41 0 +20.289s 1m14.759s 0 10
6 Sébastien Buemi Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 41 0 +20.714s 1m14.691s 0 8
7 António Félix da Costa TAG Heuer Porsche Porsche 99X Electric 41 0 +21.051s 1m14.508s 0 6
8 Mitch Evans Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 41 0 +24.758s 1m15.061s 0 4
9 Nick Cassidy Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 41 0 +29.15s 1m14.724s 0 2
10 Stoffel Vandoorne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 41 0 +29.662s 1m14.812s 0 1
11 Maximilian Günther Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 41 0 +30.276s 1m14.754s 0 0
12 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Penske DS E-Tense FE23 41 0 +31.141s 1m15.026s 0 0
13 Oliver Rowland Mahindra Racing Mahindra M9Electro 41 0 +31.537s 1m14.973s 0 0
14 Nico Müller ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 41 0 +31.951s 1m15.183s 0 0
15 Sacha Fenestraz Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 41 0 +32.355s 1m15.119s 0 0
16 Sérgio Sette Câmara NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 41 0 +35.205s 1m14.957s 0 0
17 Daniel Ticktum NIO 333 Racing NIO 333 ER9 41 0 +1m14.372s 1m14.391s 0 0
René Rast NEOM McLaren Nissan e-4ORCE 04 37 0 DNF 1m14.972s 0 0
Edoardo Mortara Maserati MSG Racing Maserati Tipo Folgore 17 0 DNF 1m14.648s 0 0
Sam Bird Jaguar TCS Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 6 5 0 DNF 1m25.535s 0 0
Norman Nato Nissan Nissan e-4ORCE 04 2 0 DNF 0s 0 0
Robin Frijns ABT CUPRA Mahindra M9Electro 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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