CHALLENGING MARRAKESH E-PRIX FOR MAHINDRA RACING
29 February 2020, Marrakesh, Morocco – Mahindra Racing headed to Marrakesh for the fifth round of the 2019/20 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, which took place today. After winning the race in the past two seasons with Felix Rosenqvist (2018) and Jérôme D’Ambrosio (2019), the team headed to its happy hunting ground in search of a hat-trick. Unfortunately, it was not to be this season and the squad’s pairing of D’Ambrosio and Pascal Wehrlein finished in 13th and 22nd respectively.
Jérôme qualified today in seventh position, just missing out on Super Pole. He had a good initial start when the lights went out for the start of the Marrakesh E-Prix, moving up to fifth on the first corner, but then as the pack battled on the opening lap he moved down to tenth. He ran as high as a ninth place but lost positions in the closing laps and crossed the line in 13th.
After showing good pace in practice, Pascal had to settle for a 16th place qualifying position after he made a mistake on his lap. He was promoted to 15th after Robin Frijns was handed a post-session penalty. He drove well and made several overtakes to start moving forward in the race, but then a rear left puncture set his fate and he was forced to pit for a tyre change. Emerging at the back, there was little else he could do and he finished in 22nd. In the latter stages of the race he set the fastest lap, but this is only deemed valid if the driver scores a top ten finish.
DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix Da Costa won today’s Marrakesh E-Prix, with BMW’s Maximilian Günther second and Da Costa’s team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne was third.