Mahindra Racing manages first Formula E win in Berlin

• Published On: 13 June 2017
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Felix Rosenqvist, who started in third eventually overtook early leader Lucas di Grassi to take the win.

The Indian racing team scored an emotional first win at the revised Tempelhofring circuit. Qualifying was the closest ever in the history of the FIA Formula E Championship, and led to Mahindra driver Felix Rosenqvist starting from third in the grid. He later moved up to second when Jose Maria Lopez made a slow start, before gradually overtaking early leader Lucas di Grassi. Earlier in the day, di Grassi took pole by out-pacing Lopez by just 0.001s, while Rosenqvist was only 0.083s off pole.

“It feels incredible,” he said. “From the start of the day the car felt good, quick and consistent. I made a small error in Super Pole qualifying, otherwise we could have been on pole. We came here much more prepared [than when I was on pole in Marrakesh] and it’s a great compliment to the team. We have some fantastic people - I was waiting for this and finally it came.”

Championship-leader Sebastien Buemi was disqualified post the race - his tyres being under pressure was the reason why. The deficit for di Grassi has now reduced to just 22 points. The second Mahindra driver, Nick Heidfeld, stood on the bottom step of the podium for the third race in a row. He managed to close his gap to di Grassi to just over a second, but at no point was he able to overtake him.

Heidfeld said, “This is a really outstanding result for the team considering where we have come from. In the first car, I was struggling but in the second car I started to catch Lucas a little bit. For a while I thought it might be possible [to catch him] but in the end it wasn’t.”

2017 Berlin ePrix (Rd 7) - Race results