• 28 April 2018
  • News

MAHINDRA RACING BACK IN THE POINTS IN PARIS

8 APRIL 2018, PARIS – Mahindra Racing drivers, Felix Rosenqvist and Nick Heidfeld, came home in eighth and eleventh positions respectively in the 2018 Paris E-Prix.

Whilst the race was eventful for numerous drivers, the Mahindra boys kept their heads down and both drove trouble free races to the flag.

Issues with the grip levels on the cold Parisian track during qualifying meant that Felix started eleventh and Nick started twelve.

At the start, both drivers got away cleanly and through the tight turn one without any damage and settled into a rhythm following the full course yellow for a slow starting Ma Qing Hua. Felix ran closely behind Lopez and inherited ninth position when Da Costa made a mistake. He then dropped down to tenth when Abt, who was on a more aggressive strategy, passed him. After another super quick pitstop on lap 24, Felix emerged ahead of Lopez and made a brilliant pass on Turvey for his eventual eighth placed finish.

Nick ran most of the early race in his grid position but focused on conserving energy in order to pit a lap later and leapfrog some drivers. The strategy gained him one position and moved him up to eleventh. He momentarily slipped down to twelfth after being overtaken by Mortara, who had 7% more energy, but this was short-lived when Mortara hit the wall. Nick then ran to the flag and finished in eleventh position.

With Jean-Eric Vergne and Sam Bird scoring strongly, both championships are looking tough for us to win but the team will keep fighting. Up next is Nick Heidfeld’s home race and the scene of Felix and Mahindra’s maiden win in Formula E – we aim to repeat that result on May 19th.

NEXT EVENT / ROUND 9

BERLIN E-PRIX 19 MAY 2018

MAHINDRA 4th 107pts
ROSENQVIST 3rd 86pts
HEIDFELD 13th 21pts

Stats:

  • 107 POINTS
  • 2 WINS
  • 3 PODIUMS
  • 1 VISA FASTEST LAP AWARDS
  • 3 JULIUS BAER POLE POSITIONS
  • 5 SUPER POLE APPEARANCES

“Tough day today, starting with the crash in practice. It didn’t cost us much, but I got over it. I just lacked confidence in this car on this track all day. We had the pace over one lap, but it was a little bit on the edge. It felt a little like no man’s land today, and we couldn’t do much more. I feel it’s track related and I’m sure we won’t have this problem at the next circuit, but it’s something we need to investigate.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST

“The plan was to go a bit longer and stop later than some of the others to gain positions. It worked, but not as well as we hoped. We just gained one position at the stops. I like the circuit but as we said its difficult to overtake here.”

NICK HEIDFELD

“We weren’t in the best form today, but we’re happy that we got over our recent reliability issues and both cars came home comfortably. We didn’t have the pace, but we’re still confident in the car and moving forward we’re aiming for speed as well as reliability.”

Dilbagh Gill

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