Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein is taking the positives out of his fourth-place finish in the Santiago E-Prix despite running in second after the first lap.
The 25-year-old started third on the grid after making it to his third successive Superpole of the season.
A good start to the race saw him move up to second for the first half of the race until Max Gunther managed to claim the position back.
Wehrlein stated Santiago was a track he liked, but he wasn’t expecting to be fighting for a podium as the team has gone through a lot of changes in the offseason.
The German is satisfied that he has a car to challenge for points, and is hopeful that with more race experience the team can push for race wins and podiums in the future.
“I finished second here last year and fourth this year so it’s a track I really like! We knew it was going to be quite difficult to stay at the front.
“I had a good start and moved up to second. I tried everything to defend positions and to be as fast as possible but fourth was the maximum we could do.”
Despite not finishing on the podium he saw it as a good result after months of hard work from the team.
“The team have been working so hard the past two months and went through a big transition with lots of new people and so I think today is a good result for us,” he added.
Team Principal Dilbagh Gill was disappointed for the team not to be stood on the podium but is optimistic that Wehrleins’ strong performances can continue in Mexico.
“We were on the podium here in Santiago last year,” said Gill. “We really wanted to repeat that so we are disappointed not to achieve that but are buoyed by a strong result for Pascal which we aim to build on in the next round in Mexico City.
“There were some good positives to be had; this race has shown two years in a row that it is a race of high attrition and it’s a positive to get two cars to the end.”
Wehrleins’ teammate Jermone D’Ambrosio started the race 20th due to an issue in qualifying but managed to work his way up to 11th, however being on the receiving end of two-time penalties made him unclassified in the final results.
Gill was hopeful that without the issue both Mahindra cars would have been in Superpole.
“It was a shame we had the issue with Jérôme’s car in qualifying as, otherwise, I believe he would have continued the Super Pole run that he began in Riyadh. We will take the positives and work on the areas we need to work on with the firm aim of a podium in Mexico.”