Written by Jacob Awcock, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Oliver Rowland and Nissan triumphed in the Mexico City E-Prix, taking advantage of multiple late safety cars to beat António Félix Da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein who claimed the final two podium spots.
Following a disappointing round 1 where he was cruelly ruled out of contention due to a technical infringement, Rowland arrived in Mexico City and cemented his position as a championship contender, capitalising on a late attack mode call to jump both Porsche cars and claim victory.
Mexico City E-Prix: Race start
Both Porsches locked out the front row of the grid, and led the field into the first corner, in a largely uneventful start by Formula E standards with Wehrlein leading his teammate into turn 1 followed by the DS Penske of Jean-Éric Vergne.
As the drivers flooded into the packed stadium section, drama unfolded in the midfield group as rookie Zane Maloney made an opportunistic lunge up the inside of Jake Hughes, punting the Brit’s Maserati into Dan Ticktum, spinning the Kiro racer around and relegating him down to the rear of the field.
Ticktum and Cupra opted to keep the car running albeit a lap down to gain performance data for the next round in Jeddah.
Further up, Rowland’s charge began as he passed Vergne up the inside of turn 1, not playing the waiting game like all the other drivers were.
Meanwhile, the two Porsches were not pulling away as expected, keeping the front 12 tightly bunched up which resulted in more chaos further back. Bird and Mortara made contact into the turn 5 hairpin, relegating Mortara to the rear of the field.
Attack mode
With both Porsche’s backing the pack up, it became a waiting game of who would choose to make the bold decision and take their first attack mode.
Andretti and Nico Müller blinked first, the Swiss driver deploying four minutes worth of his attack mode, providing him with four-wheel drive and 50KW of extra energy.
With Muller making strides to the front of the field, Andretti pulled teammate Dennis in for a four-minute spell, with the Brit sitting in fifth place. This wasn’t for long, though, as he shot past the DS Penske of Vergne, and began to close in on Rowland’s Nissan.
Lap 15 and Porsche decided to react with Pascal Wehrlein, taking two minutes worth of attack mode, opting to have six minutes worth of the boost available for the latter stages of the race.
But as the German pulled to the outside line of turn 15 and rejoined having run off line to take it, he misjudged how close teammate da Costa was to him, as he moved in front of the Portuguese driver.
This forced da Costa to slam on the brakes and provide Rowland and the chasing pack behind with a golden opportunity.
Rowland, with the extra speed heading through the final corner, shot up the inside and into second place, but the worst was yet to come for Da Costa who was shuffled offline and fell into the clutches of Rowland and Dennis behind.
The trio went three abreast into turn 1, with Da Costa coming out worse and demoted down to fifth place.
With two minutes of attack mode left, Rowland proved no match for Dennis’ Andretti and the season nine world champion found himself quickly behind reigning world champion Wehrlein.
The Brit made light work of the Porsche to take the lead on lap 16, heading into the stadium section and giving the sold-out crowd something to cheer for.
Meanwhile, further back several drivers took their attack mode a few laps later, notably da Costa and Rowland with the Nissan opting for a shorter two-minute spell in comparison to Da Costa’s four-minute deployment. This would prove critical come the end of the race.
With da Costa clearly quicker than Wehrlein, Porsche made the call to swap the pair, allowing Da Costa the chance to chase down Dennis up front.
With Dennis out of attack mode, catching and passing proved effortless for the Porsche car who shot by and into the lead.
Second attack mode
With Wehrlein unable to make an impression on Dennis up in front, Porsche opted to give the German six minutes worth of attack mode, dropping him to fifth. Although, the extra 50 kW power advantage made climbing the field look easy.
With Wehrlein making strides up the field, Andretti and Dennis responded, with Dennis taking his remaining four minutes worth of attack mode, crucially staying ahead of the Porsche.
Looking comfortable in the lead, da Costa took his remaining attack mode, dropping him to second. Although, da Costa was able to sail past Dennis a lap later, and retake the lead.
With energy figures now visible, and both Porsches having an advantage over Dennis, Wehrlein had energy to use and he used this to his advantage, passing Dennis and handing Porsche a one-two then.
First safety car
With the top three out of attack mode and a gap beginning to form, all eyes were on Rowland who still had six minutes of attack mode to go with ten laps remaining.
Sitting in fourth, 1.5 seconds off of Dennis, Rowland took his six minutes worth of attack mode.
Just seconds later, though, the yellow flags were out for David Beckmann, who was stranded in the turn 12 barrier, requiring a safety car to recover his stricken Cupra Kiro.
This should have spelled disaster for Rowland, who was left to watch his attack mode tick slowly down.
However, luck was on his side, and he owed the Mexico City marshalls, who recovered Beckmann’s car quickly, leaving him with two minutes worth of attack mode left in a tightly packed field.
As the safety car withdrew, the Briton shot into third, using the extra power to pass Dennis heading into turn 1, before dispatching Wehrlein into turn 5, and powering after Da Costa.
As the pair headed into the stadium section, Rowland shot up the inside of the Porsche to take the lead, with just four laps remaining, much to the delight of the fans.
Chequered flag
Despite a late safety car just seconds after Rowland’s overtake on Da Costa, due to a collision between São Paulo winner Mitch Evans and Müller, Rowland’s grasp on victory never looked in doubt.
The Brit, who had never stood on the podium in Mexico, calmly brought his Nissan home to claim a fortuitous victory ahead of Da Costa and Wehrlein.
Just missing out on the podium positions was Jake Dennis, followed by both DS Penske cars.
Behind them came Maserati MSG's Stoffel Vandoorne, while Nyck de Vries continued Mahindra’s impressive start to the season in eighth.
Rounding out the top ten was Müller’s Andretti, and the McLaren of Taylor Barnard who benefited from Sam Bird’s defensive driving further back, allowing McLaren to score more points.
Having lost victory in Brazil, Rowland returned to Formula E and proved exactly why he is a championship contender this year:
“It’s emotional you put a lot of work and effort into winning every weekend so to win here in front of this crowd I’m pleased.
“They (the team) worked really hard to give me a good car, Nissan is on the up and what we’ve been able to do the last season and a bit has been incredible,” Rowland was quoted saying.
Formula E returns in a month for the first double header of the season around the streets of Jeddah, a brand new circuit for Formula E, and one that will certainly prove to be crucial for drivers and teams to gain momentum as the season progresses.
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