POINTS FINISH FOR MAHINDRA RACING DESPITE STRUGGLES ON TRACK
1O JUNE 2018, ZURICH – History was in the making today, as the ABB FIA Formula E Championship came to Zurich for the tenth round of the series. After a sixty year plus hiatus, Switzerland opened it’s doors once again to closed-circuit motor racing.
Nick and Felix were both charged up and ready to go racing in Zurich. With the race practically taking place in Nick’s backyard (he lives 20 minutes away from the track), he was comfortable right away in the practice sessions. Felix, no stranger to adapting to a new street circuit and most eager to get into the fray, set the fastest lap of the practice sessions. Unfortunately, a few mistakes in qualifying and a very tight and competitive grid led to starting positions of tenth for Felix and twelfth for Nick respectively.
The start was clean with both drivers keeping themselves out of trouble and Felix making up a position right away. As he began his trademark charge up the field, on lap 17 he went into the wall at turn one during a racing incident, while defending from the hard charging Techeetah of Jean Eric Vergne. This caused Felix to come in early and make his routine pitstop. Unable to push after the early stop, Felix was still able to make up a few positions and bring the car home in fifteenth position.
Keeping himself out of any incidents, Nick maintained his upward movement through the field with a very strong drive. The usual routine pitstops up and down the field (where the Mahindra cars were second and third fastest) saw five cars get penalised for various infringements, from speeding under flags to unsafe releases. This compromised several strategies up and down the order, letting our wily veteran take advantage of the chaos and bring his car across the line in sixth position.
RACE RESULTS
HEIDFELD:- Q13 P6
ROSENQVIST:- Q10 P15