Pascal Wehrlein became the first driver to win again in this season’s FIA Formula E World Championship as he took a sensational last-lap victory in today’s Round 7 at the Misano World Circuit.
The TAG-Heuer Porsche driver was back on the top of the podium for the first time since the opening round in Mexico City, taking the 25 points for the win after the leader Oliver Rowland (Nissan) ran out of usable energy within sight of the chequered flag.
A further extra point for the fastest lap of the race means that the Monaco Increase driver is once again back leading the championship table, albeit level on 89 points with Jake Dennis (Andretti), who finished in P2 today.
Pascal bounced back from yesterday’s disappointing no-score result to put together an attacking race from his P3 grid position. Always amongst the top 3 in the first half of the 26-lapper, he moved into P2 behind Rowland on lap 14 and then took his British rival for the lead on lap 18. With five laps remaining Wehrlein was up on energy but was unable to push too much to get back into contention and was settling for second place as they entered the final lap. At Turn 5 however Rowland suddenly came to a halt from a 1.5 second lead and Wehrlein powered through for the sixth win of his career in Formula E.
“We had a good start and the beginning was a bit chaotic, but once the race settled down a bit, I think it was a fight between four or five cars,” declared a jubilant Pascal after the race. “At a certain point Oliver and I, we started to progress a little bit more. I took over the lead and initially, it was the plan to keep the lead but he was putting me under a lot of pressure and I was sure that if I tried to defend from him, I would just struggle with energy. So, in the end I didn’t defend. I let him through and my team kept telling me I’m two three percent up on energy so I was very surprised about that. Until the last or second last lap I was not even sure if that was correct or not. And then his energy, I guess, was dying in the last lap and that’s when I took over. So, all in all we did a really good job and it was the right call to trust the information we had.”
“It was a big redemption for the team today,” he added. “We know we have a strong race car and all of us Porsche drivers here we’ve proven that we have a strong package, so I’m very happy about today. The good thing for us is that we’ve improved quite a lot in qualifying during the season but it doesn’t really matter in these kinds of races like Misano because it’s so chaotic initially. A bit disappointed in general that we didn’t score any points yesterday, but the season is still long and you know, you can go quickly from zero to hero or the other way around. So, we just need to keep working on it and do the same, not getting any penalties or disqualifications.”
Pascal’s manager and MIM CEO Salvatore Gandolfo, who was on hand to watch his driver take the win, declared: “A great race and a fantastic win by Pascal which more than makes up for yesterday’s disappointing setback. We can say that this round in Italy and the next one in Monaco are virtually the two home races for Pascal and myself so let’s hope that he can keep up this momentum with another strong race in two weeks’ time.”
