The start to season 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team was not crowned with success. Scoring eleventh place with his No. 94 Porsche 99X Electric at the Diriyah E-Prix in Saudi Arabia, Pascal Wehrlein (GER) narrowly missed out on earning points. His teammate André Lotterer (GER) took the flag in P13 with the No. 36 car.
Race 1
After a strong qualifying performance, André Lotterer started the night race on the 2.495-kilometre racetrack near the capital Riyadh from the fourth grid spot. The fight for pole position was held for the first time in a new format with gripping one-on-one duels. At the wheel of his Porsche 99X Electric, he made it into the semifinals. In the race, where the Porsche Taycan Turbo S made its debut as the new Formula E safety car, Lotterer maintained the pace of the frontrunners over the entire distance. With a boost from his second attack mode, he progressed up the order to third place. In the final phase of the race, however, he lost contact with his rivals and fell behind. Pascal Wehrlein began the race from P10 and managed to progress to eighth place for a while. Ultimately, he also finished outside the points rankings.
Comments on the Diriyah E-Prix, Race 1
Amiel Lindesay, Head of Operations Formula E: « André did very well in qualifying. It’s just a shame that Pascal didn’t make it into the duels as well. Our pace was good early on in the race but then both cars ran out of energy. We’ll now look at how we miscalculated that after the safety car phase and then we’ll do better tomorrow. »
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche works driver (#94): « Overall a difficult day. We definitely expected more but the pace wasn’t really strong in the race. It was more about defending our position than attacking. Now we need to put our heads together and see what we can do. That’s the good thing about a doubleheader – we get another chance tomorrow. »
André Lotterer, Porsche works driver (#36): « A disappointing race. We had big plans, especially after the good qualifying performance. I started from the second row on the grid and even managed to advance up to third place. The car felt good but in the final spurt I suddenly experienced problems with the energy management and lost ground. »