Wehrlein keeps emphatic Mexico win after post-race investigation

Pascal Wehrlein brushed aside a muted Jaguar challenge to win the Mexico City E-Prix, though the Porsche driver's fifth Formula E victory was only confirmed four hours after he and reigning champion Jake Dennis were cleared of a potential technical infraction.

Factory Porsche driver Wehrlein and the customer Andretti-run cars of Dennis and Norman Nato were all placed under investigation for an unspecified infraction in the early laps of the race and, while Nato's case was swiftly dismissed, the Wehrlein/Dennis investigations remained unresolved, as race control announced near the finish that these would be completed post-race.

This was to determine whether either had fallen foul of "respecting the homologated primary throttle pedal map", which is understood to relate to the starting procedure.

Wehrlein's car remained in parc ferme conditions for three hours after the race but the stewards ultimately decided no further action was warranted for either car, stating they "couldn't find a breach" of the Formula E regulations.

Even had Wehrlein been penalised it should not have taken anything away from his performance; he took his third pole on the shortened version of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit by beating Sebastien Buemi in the final part of knockout qualifying, controlled the start and, aside from brief spells in second behind Buemi while the attack mode deployments played out, breezed to victory in his Porsche 99X at the head of a top five that included three of the four Jaguar-powered cars.

That performance looked even more of an outlier as the next-best Porsche was 13th on the grid, while in the race Dennis (pictured below) and Nato scraped through into the points in ninth and 10th respectively. Wehrlein's factory team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa, who started 16th, retired following a collision with Abt driver Nico Mueller.

Buemi was concerned the deployment of the safety car while he was leading might have scuppered his strategy, as his 2023 team-mate Nick Cassidy - now at the works Jaguar team - and Wehrlein behind had both taken attack mode for a second time, but he emerged from his second activation after the safety car behind only Wehrlein.

Engineer Connor Summerville encouraged Buemi to "make this a two-horse race between us and Wehrlein" after that, but Buemi lost more than a second to the leader on one lap alone and was never close enough thereafter.

He nevertheless claimed second place, with Cassidy completing the podium as he jumped surprise package Max Guenther for third when the Maserati driver took attack mode for the second time.

Guenther's third-place starting position was boosted by one-place grid penalties for Cassidy and Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans - issued for red-flag infringements in first practice - but he was embedded in the leading pack throughout and claimed a fine fourth for a Maserati MSG team that is still without a permanent team principal following James Rossiter's off-season exit.

Evans was the third of the Jaguar drivers in the top five but he faded in the latter stages and spent the closing laps resisting DS Penske's Jean-Eric Vergne. Evans ultimately headed a queue of nine cars back to Edoardo Mortara in 13th that was covered by just three seconds, with Vergne in sixth and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne in eighth sandwiching the McLaren-Nissan of Jake Hughes.

Nissan's Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz were also in that pack but the wrong side of the points cutoff in 11th and 12th, behind the Andretti-Porsches, while Formula E returnee Nyck de Vries was a quiet 15th, one place behind Sam Bird (McLaren).

Da Costa was one of three drivers to retire. Lucas di Grassi also completed only two laps as his Abt-run Mahindra was retired as a precaution after he hit the barrier exiting the chicane that leads onto the back straight - Abt said he had experienced brake issues prior to this - while Robin Frijns's accident exiting the Foro Sol on lap eighth brought out the safety car.

Frijns, who had already experienced a poor launch from seventh on the grid, lost the rear of his Envision-run Jaguar through the Stadium section's right-hand kinks as he tried to ensure he took a place from Mortara as the Mahindra driver emerged from his attack mode activation.

ERT driver Sergio Sette Camara did not start the race as his car experienced a powertrain shutdown on the grid. His team-mate Dan Ticktum was last of the classified runners in 18th.