Hard Fought Podium for Wehrlein in Rome!

Apr 11, 2021

Rome, Italy, April 11th – Monaco Increase Management driver Pascal Wehrlein took a well-deserved third place in today’s Race 2 of the Rome e-prix. It is only fair to say that this result came in spite of adverse circumstances, as Wehrlein had managed to stay a strong P3 in Qualifying this morning by running when the 3.3 track was still very damp and the race events did not work in his favour. After polesitter Cassidy missed the braking point in Turn 3, Pascal took the lead of the race with a bold move on Norman Nato, but was subsequently unable to make good use of an “Attack Mode” spell because the race was neutralized following an accident. Thus, his #99 Tag Heuer Porsche car was forced to deplete the extra power 4 minutes just trailing the safety car. Pascal then yielded one position at the restart and slipped back to 4th trying to save power for the final laps, the Rome circuit being notoriously thirsty for energy. But then again, another SC period meant that his 2% battery advantage became useless. Wehrlein crossed the finish line in fourth place, only to learn that Nato was to serve a penalty for using too much energy of his own! “This is my first podium for the Team”, Pascal said “and I should be happy, even though we saw a similar situation here to the one we had in Saudi Arabia, that is, we were quicker at the beginning of the race than in the end”. Nevertheless, thanks to the 21 points earned this weekend Pascal is now running fifth in the drivers’ standings (a place he shares with Nick De Vries) ahead of the Valencia double-header.