Maximillian Günther wins Santiago F-E Prix

Mahindra Racing and Rockit F-E Teams Chile's Second Date from season 6 results

After a 56 day break out, the third race of the 2019/20 FIA Formula E Championship took place today in the Chilean capital of Santiago, with teams competing in the searing South American heat. 

Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein and Jérôme D’Ambrosio fought hard in tough conditions with Pascal finishing just off the podium in fourth to open his points account for the season.

 

After the group qualifying sessions, Pascal was 6th, advancing to Super Pole - Mahindra’s third successive appearance in Season 6 – and he set the third fastest time in the shoot-out to line up on the second row behind pole sitter Mitch Evans and Maximilian Günther alongside on the front row. The competition was as close as ever, with Pascal and fourth placed Felipe Massa setting identical Super Pole lap times.

 

In the race, Pascal had a fantastic start to pass Günther for second and he maintained position until lap 16, when Günther retook second while in Attack Mode. An action packed start to the second half of the race saw Günther, Evans and Wehrlein in intense battle for the podium positions until Jean Eric Vergne, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Nick De Vries entered the fray in the last 15 laps, making it a six way battle and jostle for position. After passing De Vries on the final straight of the final lap, Pascal crossed the line in fourth place, just missing out on a podium finish.

 

Jérôme showed his strengths once again as he had to make a comeback in the race after suffering a technical issue in qualifying, which affected his lap, forcing him to start the race from 20th. The cause of the issue will be investigated post-race. After dropping to the back at the start, he then started picking his way through the field on a salvage mission. By lap 7 he had already made up nine places to 15th and continued to move up, sitting just outside of the points in 11th by lap 37. He was unfortunately handed two time penalties and was not classified in the final results.

Rockit

Building on encouraging pace from the outset in practice, Edoardo Mortara and Felipe Massa from the Rockit team, displayed their class in qualifying.

While Edo secured a strong P7 on the grid – despite slowing to avoid a spinning Robin Frijns on his hot lap – Felipe cemented P4 in his fourth Super Pole appearance of his Formula E career.

At the race start, Edo moved forward to P5 while Felipe dropped back to P6, with both making further advances by clearing Oliver Turvey in the early stages.

Closing in on the battle between the top three, Edo toyed with a place on the podium before contact with Antonio Felix da Costa brought an early end to the Swiss-Italian’s race.

In the heat of an increasingly intense battle, Felipe kept his cool – staying firmly inside the points-paying positions as the race reached its conclusion.

Although contact with Daniel Abt knocked the Brazilian out of the top 10 in the latter stages, he would eventually take P9 in the final standings following penalties for Abt and Sebastien Buemi.

IN WORDS

Susie Wolff, Team Principal

"Santiago will go down as a race of what could have been. A number of incidents on track compounded what was a tricky race for us – but we can take many positives away from this weekend. Our pace in qualifying was strong, with Felipe securing his place in Super Pole while Edo was only a fraction shy of the top six – despite an eventful opening to his lap. Both drivers continue to provide good feedback on our Season 6 package and we’re definitely heading in the right direction. Results like this only add to our motivation and, with some work on our race pace, I’m confident we can perform well in Mexico City."

BMW’s Maximilian Günther won today’s Santiago E-Prix, with DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix Da Costa second and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans third.