2021 Formula E: Audi and Venturi pick up Puebla E-Prix wins

Audi’s Lucas di Grassi and Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara won an E-Prix each, as Formula E witnessed two action-packed rounds in Puebla, Mexico. Elsewhere, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein endured a nightmare weekend – losing his maiden win due to a technical infringement, and later losing out on a podium finish due to improper use of FanBoost.

• Mortara takes Formula E championship lead
• Wehrlein disqualified due to technical infraction
• Strong point haul for Mahindra Racing

Di Grassi wins Puebla E-Prix after Wehrlein disqualified

Wehrlein looked all set to secure his own, and Porsche’s, first Formula E win. Starting from pole position, he’d successfully held off those behind him and was on course to victory. But at the very last minute, both Porsche cars were disqualified for not declaring their tyres. The team has lodged an appeal against this decision.

This handed Di Grassi victory – a fitting reward for his incredible charge up the order. Battling his way up from 9^th on the grid, he moved up to 6^th place after overtaking Mahindra Racing’s Alexander Sims on the run up to Turn 1. He continued gaining position after passing Jaguar’s Mitch Evans in similar fashion and later taking advantage of the battle between Maximilian Gunther and Edoardo Mortara.

With just a minute to go, he successfully passed Mortara to move up to 2^nd place and position himself to eventually seal victory thanks to Wehrlein’s disqualification. This is Di Grassi’s third win in Mexico, and his first since the 2019 Berlin E-Prix.

Rene Rast crossed the line just 0.497 secs adrift to hand Audi a 1-2 finish, while Mortara finished 3^rd for Venturi.

Mortara takes championship lead with win in Mexico

The second Puebla E-Prix saw Mortara and Venturi Racing master strategy to win the race. Taking advantage of the battle between Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and Wehrlein, Mortara timed his second attack mode activation perfectly to take the lead.

Wehrlein kept the pressure on him, but Mortara was able to fend off the Porsche driver to take his second Formula E win. With this, Mortara now jumps to the top of the drivers’ championship, 10 points clear of Virgin Racing’s Robin Frijns.

A 2^nd place finish seemed like a strong rebound for Wehrlein, but unfortunately, there was more heartbreak in store for him. He was handed a time penalty for improper use of FanBoost, dropping him down to 4^th place. This promoted Virgin Racing rookie Nick Cassidy to 2^nd and Rowland to 3^rd.

Strong points finish for Mahindra Racing

It was a challenging weekend for Mahindra Racing’s Alexander Sims. He missed out on a significant portion of practice due to a reported battery issue and even made contact with Jean-Eric Vergne during the first race. But the pace came to him in the closing stages and went on to bag 4^th place. Unfortunately, Sims retired from the next race after sustaining damage following contact with Andre Lotterer.

Alex Lynn, meanwhile, had pulled off a strong recovery drive, overcoming a puncture, to go from 16^th to 10^th in the first race. He went on to collect another handful of points in the next race with a 6^th place result.

Overall, the Indian team walked away from Mexico with a decent points haul and now stands 9^th in the championship, ahead of Nissan, Dragon and Nio 333.

2021 Puebla E-Prix results

Also see:

McLaren to race in Extreme E from 2022