Maserati MSG Racing completes first race of Formula E's Gen3 era

Edoardo Mortara

Free Practice One // P6

Free Practice Two // P19

Race // DNF

Positions Gained // N/A

Fastest Lap // 1:14.648

Championship Position // P19 0 points

Maximilian Günther

Free Practice One // P10

Free Practice Two // P16

Qualifying // P17 1:13.742, Group A

Race // P11

Positions Gained // +6

Fastest Lap // 1:14.754

Championship Position // P11 0 points

Maserati MSG Racing

Championship Position // P8 0 points

The Report

Maserati MSG Racing accelerated into a new era for Formula E at the Mexico City E-Prix, with the team narrowly missing out on the top 10 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

Facing the dawn of Gen3, drivers Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther gained invaluable insight during the Season 9 opener and showed promising initial pace following an encouraging pre-season test.

A challenging qualifying session – which saw both drivers fall short of the Duel stages – left the duo facing an uphill recovery in the race, in which they started from 16th and 17th.

Edo advanced to 15th on the opening lap by overtaking McLaren's Rene Rast, although the race was quickly paused when a collision for Robin Frijns brought out the Safety Car.

Action was resumed on lap five but was again halted one lap later when Jaguar's Sam Bird stopped on track with a technical failure. The field took to green flag running again on lap nine.

Edo and Max overtook a penalised Dan Ticktum during the restart, while the latter also passed Rast, who activated Attack Mode, for 15th.

On lap 18, an unfortunate spin and collision caused by a snap of understeer forced Edo to retire, leaving Max as the team's sole runner for the remainder of the race.

With a late Attack Mode activation, the German pilot made good progress to threaten for points in the closing laps and overtook DS Penske's Jean-Eric Vergne on the final tour to finish 11th.

Formula E's ninth season will continue on January 27th and 28th, with a double-header event on the Riyadh Street Circuit in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Diriyah.

In Their Words

James Rossiter, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing

'It was a difficult day but in motorsport, you learn the most from your bad days – not your good ones. A poor qualifying put us on the back foot, but in the race, we were able to come back strong, with Max fighting from 17th to 11th and finishing just outside the points. Edo was showing really strong pace during the race, and his incident in Turn One was unfortunate. It's a shame as his pace was great. We have a lot to learn and there is a lot of data that we need to process from this weekend so that we can be in a better position for the next race in Diriyah.'

Edoardo Mortara, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing

'This weekend wasn't our best. After the pace we had in Valencia, I found it difficult to find a good rhythm in the car, especially over one lap. I managed to come back in the race and until the crash, I think we were in a good position, especially with our pace and on the energy side. I found it quite challenging to find a good balance on the tyres, and a snap of oversteer caused me to go off in the first corner. Overall, there were few positives to take, but we will examine our data closely, understand what happened and come back for Diriyah.'

Maximilian Günther, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing

'This weekend has been tough for us as a team. With the high altitude it was quite difficult to get the tyres into the sweet spot which impacted our pace in qualifying. Starting from the back, our pace in the race was much better and our efficiency and strategy proved to be competitive. I was able to move forward several places, but unfortunately, we were just short of the top 10. We've gained a lot of data from this weekend, and now, we just need to examine our performance, focus on our progress, and come back stronger in Riyadh.'

Giovanni Sgro, Head of Maserati Corse

'Maserati is back to racing and although the result was not what we were hoping for, it still made the Mexico City E-Prix exciting and memorable for all of us. Motorsport is unpredictable. First and foremost, we're relieved Edo is ok and what a competitive race for Max, as he fought from 17th to finish just outside the points in 11th. This first race has been a great learning experience and we now focus our attention and determination on Saudi Arabia.'

Photo credit: Maserati
posted on conceptcarz.com

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