Mortara wins Marrakesh E-Prix; Mahindra in top 10

Edoardo Mortara fended off pressure from both Techeetah drivers to win the Marrakesh E-Prix. The Venturi driver moves to the top of the Formula E standings, helped by former leader Stoffel Vandoorne being in recovery mode after a poor qualifying.

Antonio Felix da Costa finished second, while Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was third after Jean-Eric Vergne was left struggling with battery temperature issues. After a tough outing in the Jakarta E-Prix, Mahindra Racing finished in the points this time around.

• Mortara leads championship by nine points from Vergne
• Rowland P10 for Mahindra

Mortara fends off Techeetah drivers

Most drivers opted to use both their Attack Modes early on in the race, and Mortara profited from this to take an early lead. Pole sitter da Costa clung to the back of Mortara for most of the race, but it was clear that Techeetah was playing a team game to aid Vergne in the championship fight.

With 10 minutes to go, both Techeetah drivers swapped positions. Vergne had two percent more useable energy than Mortara, but he couldn’t find a way past the Venturi driver. Ultimately, Vergne had to give the spot back to teammate da Costa, who felt he had a better shot at passing Mortara. But Mortara fought off the pressure to collect his third win this season.

Vergne ended up suffering battery temperature issues and lost third place to Evans on the very last lap.

Points finish for Mahindra Racing

Bouncing back after a disappointing outing in Jakarta, Mahindra Racing finished in the top 10 in Marrakesh. Rowland started the race from 11^th place after missing out on the duels by just 0.083 sec. By the end of the second lap, he’d already climbed into the top five and was challenging for a podium finish.

Rowland was running as high as second place at one point. However, Mahindra opted for an aggressive strategy to push early on and make the battery last until the end, which didn’t quite pan out. With the energy drop-off being more than expected, Rowland dropped to 10^th place, collecting one point for the team. Alexander Sims went from P19 to P14 in the race.

“It was nice to see both cars finish the race after moving through the pack so nicely,” said Dilbagh Gill, CEO and team principal of Mahindra Racing. “It’s a shame our energy drop-off at the end was more than expected, but it was good that our cars had good race pace. All eyes are on New York now, which is just a couple of weeks away.”

2022 Formula Championship standings

Stoffel Vandoorne was leading the championship heading into the Marrakesh E-Prix. But the Mercedes-EQ driver suffered a braking glitch in qualifying and, as a result, had to start from 20^th. He recovered to eighth, but that wasn’t enough for him to defend his championship lead.

Mortara now leads the standings, nine points from Vergne and 14 points from Vandoorne. Mitch Evans is just a point behind in fourth place.

2022 Marrakesh E-Prix results

Also see:

Hyderabad E-Prix confirmed: Formula E to race in India