Edoardo Mortara used attack mode strategy to take first position from pole position man Antonio Félix da Costa and win the eP of Marrakech, taking the lead in Formula E
After the last single-race round of the season, Formula E has a new leader: Edoardo Mortara took victory in the eP Marrakech, held on Saturday (2), and left Stoffel Vandoorne behind to take the lead in the Drivers' World Championship. António Félix da Costa was second, with Mitch Evans completing the podium.
The race was disastrous for the hopes of then championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne. The Mercedes driver started only in 20th position and did his best to climb the field, but finished eighth and left Marrakech without the championship lead. As a result, he dropped from first to third place in the standings - behind second placed Vergne.
Among the Brazilians, Lucas Di Grassi finished in fifth place and Sérgio Sette Câmara was 20th. Formula E returns in two weeks, with the first of the three double rounds that will close the championship. On July 16 and 17, teams and drivers will rev up their engines for the eP New York, the second-to-last round of the season.
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Check out how the eP of Marrakech went:
Da Costa had no problems holding the first position, in a start that involved no incidents. Wehrlein did well and managed to take fifth position, while Nyck de Vries went in the opposite direction and dropped from ninth to tenth. Among the Brazilians, both lost positions: Lucas Di Grassi fell to 11th, while Sérgio Sette Câmara became 13th.
At the end of the first lap, the top-10 were, in order: Da Costa, Mortara, Vergne, Dennis, Wehrlein, Evans, Rowland, Cassidy, Askew and De Vries.
Soon after, Mitch Evans started to put strong pressure on Wehrlein, who held on as long as he could. However, soon after, the Porsche driver made a mistake and gave up the position to the New Zealander - and Rowland took advantage of it to take sixth place.
On the next lap, an unbelievable moment for Nyck de Vries: The reigning champion went on Oliver Askew in such a way that he lost the braking point. Thus, with heavy pressure on the brakes, the Dutchman saw the Mercedes swing dangerously - but managed to hold the car on track and held the position. Meanwhile, Wehrlein kept losing positions and saw Nick Cassidy and De Vries leave him behind.
In the fight for the win, leader Da Costa opted to use attack mode with just over 38 minutes left in the race - letting the lead fall into Mortara's lap. Before losing the lead, the Swiss driver also activated the extra power and dropped to second place ahead of Jean-Èric Vergne - who also had attack mode activated.
In a great start to the race, Rowland took fourth place moments before activating the attack mode, a path followed by the three drivers behind: Dennis, Evans, and De Vries. With the extra power activated, the Briton from Mahindra took advantage and went after Vergne, taking third place. The Frenchman was in serious trouble and lost positions to the Andretti and Jaguar drivers.
Rowland continued at a breakneck pace and took advantage of Da Costa's exit from the track - when the Portuguese driver activated the attack mode again - to take second place from the DS Techeetah driver, a position that was returned on the next lap when Oliver himself activated the extra power.
An electrifying battle ensued for second place, with Da Costa and Rowland exchanging track positions and dueling side-by-side - an ideal scenario for leader Mortara, who kept opening the gap as his competitors spent their batteries fighting amongst themselves. Thus, the Swiss Venturi driver activated attack mode in the next round with 31 minutes to go - and didn't lose first place.
At the back of the pack, the leader of the World Driver's Championship was trying to climb positions to get into the scoring zone. Starting 20th, Stoffel Vandoorne overtook Oliver Turvey to take 14th place. Di Grassi was able to gain positions again and climbed up to eighth, while Sette Câmara was suffering with his Dragon car and was being overtaken: he was 18th at this point.
While Da Costa tried to raise the pace to at least keep the distance to Mortara, Evans ended the dream of a podium for Rowland and overtook the Mahindra driver, taking third place. With attack mode activated, the Jaguar driver quickly caught up with the Portuguese driver and started to directly threaten the DS Techeetah driver for second place.
In the main straight, however, there was no way out: Evans went to the outside and, with the extra power, left Da Costa behind without any difficulties with 26 minutes and one lap to go. Mitch still managed to take advantage of his remaining attack mode to close the gap on Mortara, who was then threatened.
In an attempt to take fifth place from Dennis, Vergne went too hot and hit the back of the Andretti, which managed to stay on track despite the impact. A little further back, Di Grassi overtook De Vries to take seventh place, while Vandoorne passed Wehrlein, Frijns, and Sims to become 11th.
With 20 minutes left in the race, the top-10 was Mortara, Evans, Da Costa, Rowland, Vergne, Dennis, Di Grassi, De Vries, Askew, and Bird.
As Mortara continued to lead, a fight was forming behind the Swiss driver: Da Costa got a firm grip on Evans, and after touching the rear of the New Zealander's Jaguar at least once, managed to take second position. The situation did not improve for the third placed driver, who saw the other DS Techeetah - driven by Vergne - leave him behind.
In the fight to get into the top-5, Di Grassi kept gaining positions and left Jake Dennis behind with just under 14 minutes to go, taking sixth place. In trouble, the Andretti Briton lost seventh place to Nyck de Vries.
The situation remained unchanged at the top, but an order from DS Techeetah had a direct impact on the title race. With Da Costa in second and Vergne in third, the team naturally ordered the Portuguese driver to give up his position to the Frenchman - who was already asking for it over the radio. With this, the two swapped positions on the track while Di Grassi took fifth place.
However, something curious happened soon after: with a clearly better pace than Vergne, Da Costa again went after his teammate and took second place from #25. Then, the Portuguese driver continued to tighten his pace and caught up with the leader Mortara, who did everything he could to hold the first position until the end.
Vergne had a hard time holding on to his position, as he saw Evans close in on the last lap to take third place. Soon after, De Vries overtook Di Grassi and took the fifth place from the Brazilian, who gave him the change at the finish line. In the fight for the top spot, no changes: Mortara - with his battery completely reset - held on to victory until the end, with Da Costa and Evans completing the podium.