Formula E

Mortara vaults into Formula E points lead with Puebla win

by Matt Beer
8 min read

Edoardo Mortara jumped from eighth to first in the Formula E World Championship standings by taking his and Venturi’s second victory at Puebla.

Mortara and Venturi’s only previous FE win had come in Hong Kong in March 2019, making the Mexico triumph the team’s first as Mercedes’ Formula E customer team.

Having qualified third, Mortara passed front row starter Pascal Wehrlein off the line and then settled in behind polesitter Oliver Rowland’s Nissan.

Puebla Formula E 2021

Rowland followed an assertive strategy of taking both his attack mode deployments in the first seven laps, but waiting a little longer paid off for Mortara and he was ahead of the Nissan as he rejoined from the attack mode loop for the second time on lap 12.

Wehrlein later got past Rowland when the Nissan lost momentum having clipped the wall. The Porsche – which was disqualified from victory yesterday due to an administrative error over declaring its tyre sets – rapidly hunted Mortara down only to use its tyres too heavily doing so.

That allowed Mortara to break away again and he ultimately won by 2.3s over Wehrlein, amazingly giving him an instant 10-point championship lead.

Porsche now faces another painful wait for news from the officials as it was announced just after the finish that Wehrlein is under investigation for maximum power over-use.

Rowland ultimately dropped back to fourth as Envision Virgin’s rookie Nick Cassidy took his first Formula E podium, gaining ground by leaving his attack mode visits late and then overcoming Rowland on track in the closing stages.

Nick Cassidy (nzl), Envision Virgin Racing, 3rd Position, In Parc Ferme

Jake Dennis and Alex Lynn completed the top five after Jean-Eric Vergne spun from fifth to seventh then was overtaken by Dennis’s BMW team-mate Maximilian Guenther.

The pre-race championship leading group had a bruising time in the midfield. Mitch Evans fared best to make it to ninth for Jaguar, as Audi’s Rene Rast came from last on the grid following his qualifying mistake to 10th, passing erstwhile points leader Robin Frijns on the final lap.

Saturday winner Lucas di Grassi was a penalised 18th following collisions with both Sam Bird (who finished 12th ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne) and Nyck de Vries (who had to retire as a consequence).

Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa was still outside the points when he crashed by himself at the tricky Turn 7 right-hander seven laps from the end.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Car Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Edoardo Mortara RokIT Venturi Racing Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02 32 27 46m41.685s 1m25.97s 0 25
2 Nick Cassidy Envision Virgin Racing Audi e-tron FE07 32 0 +4.169s 1m25.991s 0 18
3 Oliver Rowland Nissan e.DAMS Nissan IM03 32 4 +6.912s 1m26.279s 0 18
4 Pascal Wehrlein TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Porsche 99X Electric 32 1 +7.296s 1m25.871s 0 12
5 Jake Dennis BMW i Andretti Motorsport BMW iFE.21 32 0 +9.986s 1m25.688s 0 11
6 Alex Lynn Mahinda Racing Mahindra M7Electro 32 0 +10.63s 1m26.044s 0 8
7 Maximilian Günther BMW i Andretti Motorsport BMW iFE.21 32 0 +10.968s 1m25.608s 0 6
8 Jean-Eric Vergne DS Techeetah DS E-Tense FE21 32 0 +21.111s 1m26.525s 0 4
9 Mitch Evans Jaguar Racing Jaguar I-Type 5 32 0 +21.261s 1m26.313s 0 2
10 René Rast Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Audi e-tron FE07 32 0 +21.896s 1m25.37s 0 2
11 Robin Frijns Envision Virgin Racing Audi e-tron FE07 32 0 +22.216s 1m25.901s 0 0
12 Sam Bird Jaguar Racing Jaguar I-Type 5 32 0 +27.945s 1m25.722s 0 0
13 Stoffel Vandoorne Mercedes-Benz EQ Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02 32 0 +28.578s 1m26.281s 0 0
14 Sébastien Buemi Nissan e.DAMS Nissan IM03 32 0 +35.72s 1m26.167s 0 0
15 Joel Eriksson Dragon / Penske Autosport Penske EV-5 32 0 +41.027s 1m26.282s 0 0
16 Sérgio Sette Câmara Dragon / Penske Autosport Penske EV-5 32 0 +41.029s 1m26.342s 0 0
17 André Lotterer TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Porsche 99X Electric 32 0 +46.25s 1m27.412s 0 0
18 Lucas Di Grassi Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler Audi e-tron FE07 32 0 +1m26.473s 1m26.307s 0 0
Tom Blomqvist NIO 333 Formula E Team NIO 333 001 29 0 DNF 1m25.879s 0 0
António Félix da Costa DS Techeetah DS E-Tense FE21 25 0 DNF 1m26.551s 0 0
Alexander Sims Mahinda Racing Mahindra M7Electro 21 0 DNF 1m26.718s 0 0
Oliver Turvey NIO 333 Formula E Team NIO 333 001 16 0 DNF 1m26.815s 0 0
Norman Nato RokIT Venturi Racing Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02 12 0 DNF 1m27.006s 0 0
Nyck de Vries Mercedes-Benz EQ Mercedes-EQ Silver Arrow 02 8 0 DNF 1m27.54s 0 0
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