Points leader Pascal Wehrlein (TAG-Heuer Porsche) found the going tough in today’s second round of the FIA Formula E World Championship at Diriyah (Saudi Arabia) and could only finish in eighth place under the floodlights.
Qualifying on row 3 of the grid in sixth after moving up from 15th in practice, the Monaco Increase contracted driver got a slow start off the line for the 37-lap race, was bottled in at the tight Turn 1 and had dropped down to ninth by the end of the opening lap.
With the battle upfront raging between Jake Dennis (Andretti-Porsche), Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS), the German-Mauritian driver was stuck behind Maximilan Guenther (Maserati MSG) for almost the entire race but was unable to get past on the narrow flowing curves of the 2.5 km circuit.
Despite arriving at the final laps with clearly the most energy still on tap, Wehrlein was unable to mount a sustained attack on his fellow countryman and had to settle for a P8 finish at the chequered flag.
Pascal goes into tomorrow’s Round 3 of the series leading Nick Cassidy (Jaguar TCS) by just one point after only adding 4 points to his championship haul.
