António Félix da Costa got the better of Edoardo Mortara after eliminating his DS Techeetah teammate to secure his first pole position of the season at the Marrakech eP
António Félix da Costa finally scored his first pole-position in the 2021/2022 Formula E season this Saturday (02), in Morocco, beating Edoardo Mortara at the finish to secure the position of honor in the eP of Marrakech, which will be held starting at 1pm (EST). World Drivers' Cup leader Stoffel Vandoorne had problems and will start only 20th.
In the group stage, the big highlight - negative - was Mercedes. For the first time, the team's two cars were left out of the knockout stage, with Vandoorne eighth in his group and Nyck de Vries fifth - the Belgian starting 20th, while the reigning champion will start ninth.
In addition, André Lotterer was another to suffer in qualifying when he failed to set his first lap time in the first six minutes, which will see him start in last place. On the other hand, the two Andretti cars made it through to the knockout stage in Marrakech, as did Nick Cassidy with Envision.
At the end of the group stage, the qualifiers for the quarter finals were Mortara, Cassidy, Da Costa, Mitch Evans, Pascal Wehrlein, Jake Dennis, Oliver Askew, and Jean-Èric Vergne.
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The first duel of the knockout stages featured a direct contest between two title contenders, and Mortara got the better of Evans with a considerable time difference of almost 0.5s5s. Cassidy, on the other hand, was getting the better of Wehrlein, but made a mistake that almost drove him into the wall at turn 8 and allowed the German to recover. With the loss, the Envision driver leaves in eighth place.
Also a contender for the Formula E title this season, Vergne had little trouble beating Dennis in the following duel, 0s3 ahead of the Englishman. Finally, history repeated itself in the last duel - another clash between Andretti and DS Techeetah - and Da Costa guaranteed another victory to the Chinese team, beating Oliver Askew.
In the semifinals, the highlight duel was between Mortara and Wehrlein, as the two drove extremely close laps and were separated by only 0s020 for most of their laps. Even so, the Swiss Venturi driver took the lead in the last sector to secure another ticket to the final.
On the other side of the field, an internal duel: Vergne against Da Costa - and the Portuguese driver did well. In the fight for the title, 'JEV' made a mistake by frying his tires at turn 10, which allowed Antonio to open the advantage and ensure his presence in the final against Mortara.
In the last duel of the day, a tight race between the two finalists saw the DS Techeetah driver secure first place, with Lucas Di Grassi's teammate completing the lineup. Speaking of Brazilians, the Venturi driver will start 10th, while Sérgio Sette Câmara will start 12th.