MIM driver Pascal Wehrlein (TAG-Heuer Porsche) continued his love affair with the Mexican round of the FIA Formula E World Championship as he added a dominant lights-to-flag win to his pole position earlier in the day.
Pascal’s victory, the fifth of his career in Formula E, was the German’s third win in a row for Porsche powertrains in Mexico City and propels him to the top of the points table in this early stage of the championship.
Wehrlein powered away from pole at the start of the 35-lap race (with two added) and apart from a brief moment when fellow front-row man Sébastien Buemi (Envision Racing) took the lead under the time-attack exchanges, Wehrlein comfortably managed his car’s energy and the lead over his Swiss rival to take the chequered flag by just over one second.
“It was all more or less like a qualifying lap, I was really trying to maximise all my minimum speeds; I saw that Seb did a small mistake once behind me which opened up a small gap for me and from then on, I think it was pretty controlled,” declared Pascal on the podium. “So, thanks a lot to my team and thanks a lot to all the fans here, it’s always great to be in Mexico. Now, I’m already looking forward to coming back next year! It’s definitely great to start the season like this because last year, especially the second half of the season was a bit frustrating. So we stick together, we try to improve all of our weaknesses and I think again to kick off the season like this is great, but now we need to continue and we need to keep pushing, so that we don’t suffer the same issue like last season.”
MIM founder and CEO Salvatore Gandolfo was equally as ecstatic about Pascal’s superb result in Mexico City. “Big congratulations on my part go to Pascal for the way in which he has begun the season, I’m very proud of him! A big thanks to all the team as well and to Porsche, who provided him with an ultra-competitive car. All the team here at MIM would like to dedicate this pole position and victory to our dear friend and colleague, the late Alberto Antonini”.
Pascal Wehrlein was initially issued with a technical infraction warning during the early stages, but no further explanation was given until well after the race had run its course. Almost four hours after the chequered flag in fact, it emerged that the warning was for ‘not respecting the primary throttle pedal map’, but the stewards decided that no further action would be taken.
