Formula E Puebla E-Prix II
Puebla E-Prix: Mortara holds off Wehrlein to secure Race 2 win
Edoardo Mortara and Venturi Racing pulled off a strategy masterclass to each earn their second Formula E victories in Puebla as the Swiss driver moved top of the points.
Matt Kew
Edited: Jun 21, 2021, 8:44 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
He pounced on the duel between front-row starters Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein to move for his second attack mode activation and rejoined from the effective joker lap in clean air. From there, Mortara kept Wehrlein at bay thanks in part to repeatedly finding masses of time through the banked final Turn 15 to prevent the Porsche from attempting a pass.
But it looked as though Wehrlein was playing the long game, sitting in the slipstream in the thinner air of the high-altitude Miguel E. Abed circuit to gradually gain an energy advantage.
However, when it appeared as though Wehrlein was ready to make his play for a first Formula E win for him and Porsche – the Stuttgart car disqualified from victory in the Saturday race for not declaring tyre allocation – he made a small error that cost him 1.5s.
Read Also:
- Porsche explains Wehrlein Puebla Formula E disqualification
- Porsche appeals Wehrlein's Puebla disqualification
On the run into Turn 7, which has caught out drivers all weekend, he suffered a slight lose at the apex but was hurt more when he washed wide over the marbles and compromised his tyres. That allowed Mortara to streak through to a well-executed 2.296s triumph, marking a return to the top step after victory in Hong Kong in 2019 and extracting a 10-point cushion atop the standings.
Wehrlein claimed second – but is under investigation again for suspected maximum power over use – despite appearing to lose the strategy battle with Rowland early on. The pole-sitting Brit made a strong launch while Wehrlein was slow away, which gave Rowland breathing space into Turn 1 as Mortara pounced around the Porsche under braking.
Rowland then made two successive and very early plays to activate his attack mode, initially rejoining the circuit in fourth and getting caught behind Wehrlein, despite gaining the better part of 0.5s through the joker lap diversion to close to the German.
It looked as though Rowland would stay put in second for the duration until a mistake at Turn 10 meant he clonked the wall and dropped. That damage left him prey to the Envision Virgin Racing machine of rookie Nick Cassidy, who leapt by a handful of laps from home for the Kiwi to earn a first Formula E podium.
Rowland hung on to fourth after taking late avoiding action into Turn 11 when he locked up and nearly tagged Cassidy into a spin.
The BMW Andretti contingent was led by Jake Dennis in fifth, the rookie coming out on top of a scrappy battle for points ahead of Alexander Lynn.
With several of the cars carrying advertising banners from brushes with the wall, Maximilian Gunther secured seventh ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne. The DS Techeetah racer looked sound in fourth for much of the duration but spun at Turn 9 as he continued to use the regen braking paddle past the apex and unsettled the car.
Mitch Evans ran to ninth for Jaguar Racing and Saturday runner-up Rene Rast completed a remarkable climb from last – when his qualifying lap was thrown out for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner – to claim a point in 10th for Audi.
Robin Frijns was similarly deft at picking up places, rising from 21st after a series of collisions for his rivals.
Among them, Saturday victor Lucas di Grassi was handed a drivethrough penalty for eliminating Nyck de Vries after the Brazilian rejoined from the attack mode joker lap and whacked the Mercedes at Turn 9.
Di Grassi was also in the wars at Turn 7, hitting Sam Bird after Sebastien Buemi appeared to slow for Nissan e.dams, with Bird crossing the line 12th. That left a bodywork-damaged Stoffel Vandoorne to score 12th over Buemi.
Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa made an uncharacteristic mistake when he ran wide at the blind Turn 7 and smashed into the concrete wall heavily.
Although the suspension was buckled, the Portuguese, entering the race second in the championship, was able to crawl his car to an exit road to avoid a safety car.
Puebla E-Prix Race 2 results
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval 1 Edoardo Mortara
Venturi 32 46'41.685 2
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Team 32 46'43.981 2.296 2.296 3
Nick Cassidy
Virgin Racing 32 46'45.854 4.169 1.873 4
Oliver Rowland
DAMS 32 46'48.597 6.912 2.743 5
Jake Dennis
Andretti Autosport 32 46'51.671 9.986 3.074 6
Alex Lynn
Mahindra Racing 32 46'52.315 10.630 0.644 7
Maximilian Gunther
Andretti Autosport 32 46'52.653 10.968 0.338 8
Jean-Eric Vergne
Techeetah 32 47'02.796 21.111 10.143 9
Mitch Evans
Jaguar Racing 32 47'02.946 21.261 0.150 10
René Rast
Team Abt 32 47'03.581 21.896 0.635 11
Robin Frijns
Virgin Racing 32 47'03.901 22.216 0.320 12
Sam Bird
Jaguar Racing 32 47'09.630 27.945 5.729 13
Stoffel Vandoorne
Mercedes 32 47'10.263 28.578 0.633 14
Sébastien Buemi
DAMS 32 47'17.405 35.720 7.142 15
Joel Eriksson
Dragon Racing 32 47'22.712 41.027 5.307 16
Sergio Sette Camara
Dragon Racing 32 47'22.714 41.029 0.002 17
Andre Lotterer
Porsche Team 32 47'27.935 46.250 5.221 18
Lucas di Grassi
Team Abt 32 48'08.158 1'26.473 40.223
Tom Blomqvist
NIO Formula E Team 29 45'38.013 3 Laps 3 Laps
Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah 25 37'12.868 7 Laps 4 Laps
Alexander Sims
Mahindra Racing 21 31'20.671 11 Laps 4 Laps
Oliver Turvey
NIO Formula E Team 16 28'38.147 16 Laps 5 Laps
Norman Nato
Venturi 12 17'58.256 20 Laps 4 Laps
Nyck de Vries
Mercedes 8 13'06.281 24 Laps 4 Laps View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Porsche appeals Wehrlein's Puebla disqualification
Next article Wehrlein loses Puebla podium for fanboost infraction
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Matt Kew
Marko suggests Perez's improved F1 form because 2025 contract at stake
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Marko suggests Perez's improved F1 form because 2025 contract at stake
Russell explains how low-fuel runs expose Mercedes F1 inconsistency
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Russell explains how low-fuel runs expose Mercedes F1 inconsistency
Leclerc: No answer for "once in a season" Japan F1 qualifying struggle
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
Leclerc: No answer for "once in a season" Japan F1 qualifying struggle
Latest news
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar
Josh Pierson earns IndyCar license approval following IMS road course evaluation test
Christian Horner opens up on Red Bull F1 exit: “Perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team”
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 25 min
Christian Horner opens up on Red Bull F1 exit: “Perhaps it was perceived I had too much influence over the team”
Jorge Martin: “I don’t feel I will struggle anymore” in MotoGP title run-in
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
1 h
Jorge Martin: “I don’t feel I will struggle anymore” in MotoGP title run-in
"Extremely difficult": Calendar clashes threaten Marco Wittmann's DTM future
DTM
DTM DTM 1 h
"Extremely difficult": Calendar clashes threaten Marco Wittmann's DTM future
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe