Pascal Wehrlein takes victory amid attack mode drama at Miami

Vyas Ponnuri
15 hours ago
4 min read

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

The record books might say victory for Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche, but it was far from dramatic at Homestead. The drama only continued after the chequered flag, with several drivers penalised for not finishing their allocated attack modes.

Wehrlein took his first win of 2025 | Credit: Andrew Ferraro/LAT Images

Several drivers received ten-second penalties after the chequered flag for not completing their allocated eight minutes of attack mode before the end of the race. Race winner Norman Nato too fell foul of this, dropping down to sixth on the road.

Wehrlein inherited victory, while Lucas di Grassi grabbed Lola ABT Yamaha's first Formula E podium, finishing second. Antonio Felix da Costa backed up Porsche's strong day by finishing third.

Nico Müller took fourth for Andretti, followed by Edoardo Mortara in fifth for Mahindra. Nato took sixth for Nissan, followed by Dan Ticktum in seventh. Robin Frijns wound up eighth for Envision Racing, while Jake Dennis made it double points in Andretti's home event with ninth.

Rookie Zane Maloney capped off an excellent day for Lola ABT Yamaha, taking the final point in tenth.

AS IT UNFOLDED

The five red lights went out at the Miami E Prix, twice! | Credit: Joe Portlock/LAT Images

Pole-sitter Norman Nato maintained his position off the five red lights, holding off da Costa. The top ten remained largely similar, with Dennis losing positions, albeit at the expense of da Costa.

Nyck de Vries, meanwhile, moved up to a solid third, sitting comfortably behind da Costa and Nato. Meanwhile, further back, Jean-Eric Vergne went off the track on lap 9, bottoming out over the bump at turn 12.

Nyck de Vries takes attack mode, goes into the race lead on lap 12. Mortara, in the meantime, moved past Barnard into seventh.

David Beckmann's race went from bad to worse. The Cupra Kiro racer who made it into the duels for the first time in 2025, pit midway into the race, before retiring due to a technical issue.

Meanwhile, the pack of drivers scrambled into the hairpin of turn 8, hounding race leader de Vries. Nico Muller shot into the lead on lap 13 in Andretti's home race, after taking his first attack mode.

However, da Costa grabbed the lead on lap 15, once the Swiss racer ran out of attack mode, with Mortara following through.

His teammate de Vries, however, ran off track at turn 3. As the Dutchman forced to restart his Mahindra, the off triggered a safety car on lap 17. de Vries, however, got going, with the safety car retreating to the pits on lap 18.

Wehrlein had as much as four percent less energy compared to teammate da Costa ahead, and instead served a rear gunner for the Portuguese driver ahead.

As da Costa and Mortara took their last six minutes of attack mode, the race was interrupted by an incident at the turn 10/11 chicane. Max Günther punted Maserati's Jake Hughes into the wall, with Mitch Evans clouting the pair of them.

A stricken Jake Hughes brought out the red flag, causing drama at the end | Credit: Andrew Ferraro/LAT Images

The stricken Maserati brought out a red flag. While Günther reversed his DS Penske into Evans, both drivers still continued, retreating to the pits for repairs.

Both drivers, however, were a lap down on the rest. Another rising concern over attack modes began to take shape. With only four laps remaining, and drivers on the grid still yet to take as many as six minutes of attack mode, they would be cutting it fine until the end.

Race director Marec Hanaczewski later announced a standing start for the drivers, kicking off what was set to be an excellent four laps to the flag.

The second restart saw Mortara jump into second, while the remaining drivers jumped into attack mode.

As the drivers scrambled for attack mode, plenty of positions were exchanged as drivers maximised the extra power available to them. However, they were at risk of not completing their attack modes before the chequered flag.

Wehrlein's race engineer radioed to the German to keep calm, while da Costa's engineer instructed him to 'battle until the line'.

The eventual finishing margin was 0.119s, one of the closest in Formula E history. However, none of it would count in the overall classification for Nato, bumped down after penalties were applied.

Both Lola cars scored points in a thrilling race | Credit: Simon Galloway/LAT Images for Formula E

The results might be discontent for the drivers, but it threw up feel good stories all around. Lola ABT Yamaha's podium came only days after they committed to the upcoming Gen4 era, sparking some life into their debut campaign.

After all the penalties, the final results are as follows: