Mexico City ePrix Race Review
Updated: Feb 2, 2023
Dominant Display from Dennis
That’s how you start the new season! Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis took the lead on lap 12 and he never looked back, winning the race by nearly 8 seconds (7.8). Pascal Wehrlein also drove a really good race, coming in second place, nearly 11 seconds ahead of Lucas di Grassi who rounded out the podium in Mexico City.
The Most Notable Moments
Lucas di Grassi got off the line well and he stayed in first place going into the first corner. Everyone got through the first lap pretty cleanly except Robin Frijns who drove into the back of Norman Nato at Turn 9. This ended both driver's races and it’s now been revealed that Robin broke his wrist in the contact. Get well soon! The safety car was called out and when we got going on lap 6, Sam Bird’s car broke so the safety car was back on the track. We got back underway on lap 10 and the big moment happened two laps later as Lucas di Grassi made a mistake and Jake Dennis dived up the Brazilian’s inside at turn 3 to take the lead of the Mexico City ePrix. Jake got his head down and built a lead of about 4 seconds before another safety car was called (lap 19) after Edoardo Mortara spun his car into the barrier at turn 1.
The race restarted on lap 22 and Jake once again pulled out a good lead before it was time for the drivers to go back through attack mode. Pascal Wehrlein (P4) and Andre Lotterer (P5) went through it a lap before Lucas di Grassi (P2) and Jake Hughes (P3) and this benefited the Porsche driver as when di Grassi and Hughes activated their attack mode, Wehrlein had jumped ahead of the McLaren driver and onto the podium. On lap 29, Pascal managed to overtake Lucas into the turn 5 chicane and this allowed the German driver to drive off for a comfortable P2. 5 laps were added on due to all of the safety car stoppages and Lucas di Grassi was just about hanging onto P3 ahead of Jake Hughes and Andre Lotterer. Rene Rast's car stopped near turn 7 and this meant that the main overtaking spot of turn 9 was under yellow flags which cost Hughes as I think he would’ve got P3 otherwise. On the final lap, Rast’s car was cleared and Andre Lotterer managed to overtake Jake Hughes into the turn 9 chicane to get up to P4.
Drivers who Impressed
Obviously, we start with Jake Dennis. Jake qualified P2 and once he got the lead, he was absolutely dominant. I was also impressed with Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein who went from sixth to second and showed that he loves the streets of Mexico City. Lucas di Grassi also deserves to be in this category given at one point, it looked like he might not even finish in the top 5. Also, even though Jake Hughes dropped down two places, a P5 in his first-ever Formula E race is pretty impressive. Sebastian Buemi qualified in a pretty good seventh place and he finished the race in P6 so he definitely deserves a mention and his Envision teammate Nick Cassidy also scored points after starting P12. Both Maximilian Gunther and Oliver Rowland recovered well to finish P11 and P13 respectively.
Drivers who Struggled
Both DS Penske’s didn’t have the best of weekends. Stoffel Vandoorne did recover from P14 to take home 1 point, but it’s still not the start that the reigning Formula E World Champion would’ve wanted. As for Jean-Eric Vergne, he qualified 11th and finished 12th so it was a proper mid-weekend for the only two-time FE Champion. I praised Max Gunther and Oliver Rowland for their impressive recoveries, but that doesn’t change the fact that they qualified in a really poor 17th and 22nd place respectively. It’s even worse for Rowland when you consider that his teammate Lucas di Grassi got pole. Sacha Fenestraz had a brilliant qualifying for Nissan, but he just couldn’t stay in the points and he ended up dropping all the way down to P15. Robin Frijns drove straight into the back of Norman Nato on lap 1 whilst Edo Mortara made a stupid error that saw him crash at turn 1. A pretty bad start to the season for both men.
Overall Race Results
Jake Dennis: 58:25.974
Pascal Wehrlein: +7.816
Lucas di Grassi: +18.611
Andre Lotterer: +19.161
Jake Hughes: +20.289
Sebastian Buemi: +20.714
Antonio Felix da Costa: +21.051
Mitch Evans: +24.758
Nick Cassidy: +29.150
Stoffel Vandoorne: +29.662
Maximilian Gunther: +30.276
Jean-Eric Vergne: +31.141
Oliver Rowland: +31.537
Nico Mueller: +31.951
Sacha Fenestraz: +32.355
Sergio Sette Camara: +35.205
Dan Ticktum: +1:14.372
Rene Rast: DNF
Edoardo Mortara: DNF
Sam Bird: DNF
Norman Nato: DNF
Robin Frijns: DNF
Drivers’ Standings:
Jake Dennis: 26pts
Pascal Wehrlein: 18pts
Lucas di Grassi: 18pts
Andre Lotterer: 12pts
Jake Hughes: 10pts
Teams’ Standings:
Avalanche Andretti: 38pts
TAG Heuer Porsche: 24pts
Mahindra Racing: 18pts
NEOM McLaren: 10pts
Envision Racing: 10pts
