Porsche left Mexico thinking “what could have been” after they secured their first-ever pole position, but they left the race empty-handed in term of points.
The day started well for Porsche, as Andre Lotterer managed to secure the team’s first pole position, but the German driver didn’t get the best start to the race, and he lost out to Mitch Evans going into Turn 1.
Lotterer was forced out wide going into the first corner and dropped down to fourth place. Then, he would later make contact with Nyck DeVries which saw the Porsche driver break his front-wing, which ended up forcing Lotterer to retire from the race.
“Of course, that is not the result I had hoped for,” said Lotterer. “I struggled with wheelspin at the start, and then Mitch (Evans) hit me on the first corner. That lost me a few places. It was a tough race with plenty of incidents. After so many collisions, my car was so badly damaged that I had to retire. I will go back on the attack in Marrakesh.”
Neel Jani had a tough race, as the Swiss driver tried coming through the field after a challenging qualifying session. Other drivers also hit Jani as he tried to recover to a points-paying position.
“The start went well, even though I was on the dirty side of the track,” said Jani. “After that, I was involved in a lot of battles and kept getting hit from in front and from behind. It’s a shame that I was later subjected to a drive-through penalty. Had that not been the case, a better result would certainly have been possible. I am happy that I was able to finish the race and gain some more experience. André’s pole position showed what the car is capable of, that gives us confidence for Marrakesh.”
Amiel Lindesay the Head of Operations of Porche’s Formula E project admitted that the team had to analyse why they couldn’t come away with points in Mexico after starting from the front row of the grid.
“That was another tough race for us,” said Lindesay. “André was repeatedly involved in battles that severely damaged the car. We eventually had to withdraw the car from the race. A drive-through penalty was imposed on Neel after the safety car period. We will have to analyse the precise reason for this.
“Of course, we are disappointed with how the race went, but we need to focus on the positive aspects of this weekend. The pole position and the pace of both drivers show that we are competitive.”