DS Techeetah driver and race winner Antonio Felix da Costa and his teammate Jean-Eric Vergne pulled off a double podium for DS in Marrakesh. Splitting the pair in second was BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Max Guenther and Mercedes-Benz EQ’s Nyck de Vries in third after a manic race in Marrakesh. Mahindra Racing headed to Marrakesh for the fifth round of the 2019/20 ABB FIA Formula E Championship, which took place Sunday. After winning in the past two seasons – Felix Rosenqvist (2018) and Jérôme D’Ambrosio (2019) – the team headed to its happy hunting ground in search of a hat-trick. Unfortunately, it was not to be this season and the squad’s pairing of D’Ambrosio and Pascal Wehrlein finished in the 13th and 22nd, respectively.
Starting from 11th, reigning champion and DS Techeetah driver Jean-Eric Vergne moved up the order to seventh, desperate to kick start his third championship title campaign. At the same time, Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries dropped from third to the back while serving a drive-through penalty for being overpowered while regenerating energy.
Moving into third, TAG Heuer Porsche’s Andre Lotterer moved up into third with 28 minutes left on the clock. With Da Costa still leading the way, Guenther followed close behind in second.
Still climbing up the order, Vergne moved into third, slipping past his former teammate Andre Lotterer who moved down into fourth. Despite missing the first Practice session, the reigning champion was in a potentially facing a podium finish after starting outside the top ten.
Jérôme qualified in the seventh position, just missing out on Super Pole. He had a good initial start when the lights went out for the beginning of the Marrakesh E-Prix, moving up to fifth on the first corner, but then as the pack battled on the opening lap he moved down to tenth. He ran as high as ninth place but lost positions in the closing laps and crossed the line in 13th.
After showing good pace in practice, Pascal had to settle for a 16th place qualifying position after he made a mistake on his lap. He was promoted to 15th after Robin Frijns was handed a post-session penalty. He drove well and made several overtakes to start moving forward in the race, but then rear left puncture set his fate and he was forced to pit for a tyre change.
Emerging at the back, there was little else he could do and he finished in 22nd. In the latter stages of the race he set the fastest lap, but this is only deemed valid if the driver scores a top ten finish.