Formula E’s new era with the brand new Gen 3 cars started with a party at Mexico City on Sunday, where Mahindra Racing’s Lucas Di Grassi drove a phenomenal race to get third position, after starting one pole. The weekend was a very good one for Di Grassi overall, as he scored only his third pole in his Formula E career, which also made Mahindra the only team to get poles in six different seasons.
The race started well for Di Grassi, who overcame two safety car restarts to keep the faster Andretti Racing car of Jake Dennis behind. However, a mistake at the chicanes helped Jake Dennis overtake him. However, it was a matter of time as Di Grassi was losing time to him with his slower car anyway. He further lost another place to the Porsche of Pascal Wehrlein. However, after getting down to third place, Di Grassi produced one of the drives of his career to defend from four cars that were faster behind him, and bagged the third place, earning Driver of the Day in the process.
On the other side of the garage, Oliver Rowland had a torrid time as he was unable to set a lap time in qualifying, starting dead last. However, a cool recovery drive helped him get upto P13 before the end of the race. Mahindra’s customer team, ABT Cupra, suffered a retirement for Robin Frijns while Nico Mueller finished behind Rowland in P14.
After getting his first pole and podium for Mahindra Racing, Lucas Di Grassi said: “What happened today was like a Mexican miracle. To be on pole and to be on the podium and going home with 18 points after a tough beginning to the season is a testimony to the hard work the team are putting in to make the car the best we can. I gave it my all today to try and make the team proud. I’m very happy to leave here with this result, it feels like a victory to us. But this is just the beginning. We need more consistent results and we have got to work hard for this.”
With a strong start already in what is not the fastest car on the grid yet, Mahindra have made a dent. We can’t wait to see what happens next in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia in just two weeks’ time on 27-28 January.