Edoardo Mortara, along with CUPRA Kiro’s Dan Ticktum, had a claim to being the unluckiest driver in last Saturday’s Sao Paulo EPrix.
The Mahindra driver had been quick all day in his Mahindra M12Electro, fourth in free practice and then qualifying third after losing out to pole sitter Jake Dennis in the first semi-final by just 0.029s.
The race therefore was looking strong with Mortara in a prime position. Then came Turn One!
Minding his own business on the outside of the corner, he had the long game in mind and Mortara was maintaining position. That was, until teammates Nyck de Vries locked up, tagged first Dan Ticktum and then Mortara himself, who was then left with no other option than to take avoiding action and head down the escape road.
“Man, what the f*** is that?” was Mortara’s succinct analysis of his teammate’s rashness and rush of blood. It was a pretty fair question.
Mortara elected not to stop in the run-off area as instructed by the race director prior to the race. So, he was thus given a 5-second penalty. Hold that thought for later!
He emerged third to Dennis and Wehrlein after his excursion through the run-off area and settled in to a decent pace, taking his Attack Mode early and staying in the leading group.
By Lap 23 Mortara was in ninth position having slipped back as others took their second Attack Mode. But again, in the long game, he was looking good.
It would have been looking even better for him as the Safety Car came out on Lap 23 and he’d have been a net P2 at least on resumption of the race……except…..except….he was in the wall and triggering the suspension himself.
Heading in to the T4-T6 complex he was defending from a 350kW boosted Lucas di Grassi. The Brazilian ran slightly wide on entry to the first right-hander and Mortara gave him a wide berth. The next left saw di Grassi’s trajectory acute so he ran wide on the exit and drew level with the Mahindra.
But instead of backing out he drove Mortara in to the wall and himself in to the Stewards Room, whereupon he received a five-place grid drop for Mexico City and two penalty points.
Mortara was out on the spot, suspension and steering mangled. Post race his 5-second penalty was rescinded. As consolations go this one was very much the chocolate-fireguard bracket.
“Honestly, the first 10/15 laps actually were quite okay and I was able actually to stay within the top three quite easily, being actually efficient,” Mortara told Formula E Notebook after the race.
But Mortara’s dramas, all of which were not of his own personal doing, had actually started in the extended practice session on Saturday morning.
“I was unable to actually complete my last run because I got a nail in the tire, so could not do the entire end of FP,” he said.
Because we didn’t do FP1 it was quite bit of limited running, but we still managed to go through the group stage (in qualifying).
I think that was already quite good in the race. It is always a little bit different compared to qual obviously, because you’re, like, managing your energy, so you’re not pushing 100%. It didn’t seem to be atrocious, but it was also not mega, mega.”
Team Boss Rues Lost Points
Mahindra team principal Frederic Bertrand admitted that the Sao Paulo EPrix was a joker race it could not afford to toss away.
By rights the team should have taken at least 20 points from the weekend, instead it took two.
“Definitely on Nyck’s side too many mistakes this weekend,” Bertrand told FEN.
“He saw an opportunity at the start taking a position but was not necessary because we know that in such a race, to take so much risk at the beginning is just opening more problems.
“But at the end, even after this one, there was not so many consequences until the puncture but I would say in that case more a mix between lack of patience and a bit of we want to do better.”
Bertrand admitted to feeling “a little bit sad because we feel that we could leave this race with 20 points and we leave the race with two.
“The good thing is it’s only the first race of the championship. The bad thing is that we would have loved to start with something a bit more impacting.
“But it is part of the game we are learning every day, but definitely that’s a joker that we have burned here and we don’t have so many if we want to stay able to perform properly on the championship level.”
