DI GRASSI SNATCHES VICTORY IN MEXICO
Just 10 metres would have made the difference, reckoned Mahindra Racing’s Pascal Wehrlein.
Picking up where he left off at the previous round in Santiago, it was a cruel twist of fate that again he would lose a chance of victory at the death.
Double so, when it is considered Mahindra lost a win at Mexico City last year too: Wehrlein’s predecessor Felix Rosenqvist was the victim then.
This time, Mahindra’s victory slipped away when Wehrlein, fresh off the back of on-the-limit defending against Audi driver Lucas di Grassi, coasted towards the finish line when his car shut down with no energy remaining.
Wehrlein believed that would never have happened if he had lifted once into a corner, despite his early season claims energy management was “quite easy”.
It was the culmination of an unorthodox and chaotic race. The weekend build-up began with complaints from the likes of reigning Formula E champion Jean-eric Vergne that the Gen2 car had lessened the skill of energy management in favour of flat-out sprints.
Vergne would also become the reason for those predictions proving false. But for that to happen it required a frightening collision between the DS Techeetah driver and Nelson Piquet Jr when the Jaguar driver closed in heading towards the final chicane on lap three.
Piquet clipped the right-rear of Vergne’s car and launched into the air before the sliding Jaguar sideswiped Alexander Sims ahead.
“Yeah it was aggressive, I was committing to the corner, but when you start defending you expect the guy to brake deep, he’s not going to brake in the point where he’s coasting or on a saving lap,” said Piquet.
“So, that caught me by surprise, it was closing the door and I thought he’d brake deeper and he braked way too early. When I hit him I was still accelerating.”
Vergne countered: “I closed the door and I kept my line. I did nothing wrong and I braked on the normal point and he just went flying over me.”
Significant debris from that clash caused a red flag and a frantic reassessment of energy and attack mode strategies before the race resumed.
While the likes of Venturi’s Felipe Massa and Nissan e.dams were caught out by incorrect calculations, Wehrlein still looked untouchable, as he had when he began the race from pole.
But a Nissan mistake began Wehrlein’s demise. Oliver Rowland, enjoying his best weekend in Formula E, had worked as a buffer to the advancing di Grassi.
Yet Rowland took his second attack mode late on, with di Grassi right on his tail, and slid wide as he went offline losing the position.
That opened up a five-lap sprint to the flag as di Grassi reeled in Wehrlein as the Mahindra driver pulled off a defensive masterclass.
But the pressure and early excessive energy use finally told on the final lap. Di Grassi looked to the inside at Turn 1 before pulling sideby-side with Wehrlein approaching the Turn 3/4 chicane
Wehrlein stayed ahead only by cutting the chicane but di Grassi was relentless and the wasted energy played into the Audi driver’s hands. When Wehrlein’s energy was sapped, di Grassi dived to the inside against the pitwall to take the narrowest of wins.
Di Grassi argued Wehrlein was “more than aggressive” in his defending: “I knew he was running out of energy.
“I was putting pressure on him, trying to overtake him all of the last five laps.
“And then, in the chicane coming out of Turn 3, I could see every corner he left he was defending, closing the door, and was going to the outside.
“On the last lap I was behind him and pretended to go to the outside and he left a door small enough to go down the inside between the wall and the kerb and I went there.
“I went side-by-side with him and then he cut the chicane. Probably he would get a penalty anyway, but that was the move [that was key].”
Wehrlein insisted he wasn’t disappointed by his finish, although angered by a five-second penalty for his chicane cut that dropped him to sixth overall. But he did hit out at di Grassi.
“All the time I am close to him we either crash or touch each other,” said Wehrlein. “It seems [to be] the way he likes to drive. [But] for me it’s fine.”
Wehrlein’s misery was matched by Nissan’s race also getting derailed on the last lap. A software issue caused a miscalculation on energy management by just one lap as Rowland and Buemi fell from third and fourth to 20th and 21st.
For the chasing Antonio Felix da Costa and Edoardo Mortara, who managed their energy better, they were rewarded with second and third respectively.
A welcome gift for Mahindra is that it left Mexico on top of the championship and Jerome D’ambrosio’s recovery drive from 19th to fourth ensured he returned to the top of the drivers’ standings.
He toppled Virgin Racing driver Sam Bird, whose weekend was derailed by a driveshaft failure in qualifying before an impressive damage limitation drive to ninth.
Mondello Park’s rallycross circuit will be run in a number of configurations, in both directions, for the 2019 Irish Rallycross Championship season, which was launched at the Naas venue near Dublin last week.
The IRX series will get underway at Mondello next week, while the Pallas circuit in Tynagh, County Galway will host round two. A double-header weekend will be held back at Mondello in July for the fourth and fifth rounds, with the sevenevent calendar being concluded at the end of November.