The Mexico City ePrix was confirmed on for the 4th consecutive year on June 7, 2018, by the FIA World Motor Sport Council,[1] and was held at the permanent Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez located in Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City in the southeast of Mexico City. It was both the 4th race of the season and the 4th time the annual race had been held in Mexico City. The sport continued to use the 2.092 km (1.299 mi) short circuit centred around the Foro Sol which had 17 turns, 12 to the right and 5 to the left. At 2,250 m (7381.89 ft) above sea level, it is the highest track on the calendar.
After winning in Santiago the previous weekend, Sam Bird entered the weekend leading the drivers championship with 43 points and a 2-point lead over Jerome d'Ambrosio. Third place was António Félix da Costa who had failed to score since winning the opening race of the season in Ad Diriyah. He was tied on points with both Sam Bird's Virgin Racing teammate Robin Frijns and Techeetah driver, and defending champion, Jean-Éric Vergne, all three of which had 28 points. In the teams championship, Virgin led with 71 points with Mahindra close behind in second, with 59 points and Techeetah in third with 47 points. Going into the weekend, only one team had failed to score points, that team being HWA.
There was one driver change before the weekend, with former Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr replacing Maximilian Günther at Dragon Racing after Günther had completed a three race programme with the team which started at the opening round in Ad Diriyah.[2]
Practice
Both practice sessions were held early on Saturday morning. Practice 1 started shortly after sunrise, meaning that the track was considerably colder than normal, causing several drivers to be caught out by lack of grip. This became apparent when Robin Frijns spun his Envision Virgin 180 degrees on approach to turn 3. Daniel Abt was the fastest in Practice 1 with a time of 59.319. Second fastest was Edoardo Mortara with a 59.397 and third was Alexander Sims with a time of 59.539.[3]
Practice 2 got underway, one and a half hours after the first practice. The only notable incident during Practice 2 is when Oliver Turvey clipped the inside of turn 15 and broke his suspension.[4] Da Costa set the pace with a 58.963, followed by Felipe Massa with a 59.138 and with Sébastien Buemi rounding out the top 3 with a 59.248.[5]
Qualifying
Pascal Wehrlein(pictured in 2011) gets his first pole position in Formula E, after only three races of the season since his debut.
Qualifying was divided into four groups. During the group 1 Qualifying session, the championship leader Sam Bird had his car broke down with a driveshaft problem before he could set a flying lap. Bird would start the Mexico City ePrix from the back of the grid. Oliver Rowland was fastest on the overall group qualifying, with a time of 59.593, ahead of Pascal Wehrlein. Jerome D'Ambrosio qualifies at 19th, while Frijns takes 17th, but was later demoted to 20th after impeding D'Ambrosio. After group qualifying, Rowland, Wehrlein, Massa, Di Grassi, Buemi, and Da Costa progressed to super pole. Pascal Wehrlein went on for his first Pole Position in his Formula E career with a time of 59.347 to secure Mahindra Racing’s first pole since 2018 Rome ePrix, by a margin of three-tenths over Lucas di Grassi. Massa qualifies third, while Rowland takes forth, ahead of BMW Andretti driver, António Félix da Costa, and his teammate Sébastien Buemi. [6]
Race
The race began at 16:03 Mexico Time (UTC-06:00). Weather conditions at the start of the race were dry. The air temperature throughout ranged from 28.5 to 26.5 °C (83.3 to 79.7 °F) and the track temperature drops from 45 to 38 °C.[7] Each driver was mandated to activate the attack mode system twice and were permitted to arm the system no more than five times. A special feature of Formula E is the "Fan Boost" feature, an additional 25 kW (34 hp) of power to use during the race's second half. The five drivers who were allowed to use the boost were determined by a fan vote.[8] For the Mexico City race, Vandoorne, Abt, Félix da Costa, Buemi, and Di Grassi were handed the extra power. Wehrlein defended his lead from di Grassi off the line ahead of Nissan e.dams driver Oliver Rowland, who jumped from fourth to second at the first corner, ahead of Di Grassi in third place.[9]
Into the first five minutes, the race was under red flag, when Nelson Piquet Jr. had a massive accident, smashed over the back of Vergne's Techeetah car, and clipping the rear of Sims's BMW Andretti car before hitting the wall at turn 17. A full course yellow was initially deployed before the race was suspended and Wehrlein led the Mexico City ePrix from Rowland in second place, and Di Grassi in third. At the safety car restart, most of the field took their first attack mode usage. Wehrlein having pressure from Rowland, with Buemi and da Costa catching the leaders later on.[9]
When Rowland took his second attack mode, he runs wide at turn 9 and di Grassi overtook him at the exit of the stadium section to take second place, with Rowland and Buemi touching together at the final chicane. On the final lap, Di Grassi closed up to Wehrlein, but both Nissan drivers, Rowland and Buemi, ran out of energy with a lap to go and dropped down to the back of the field. At the final lap, Di Grassi attacked down the inside at the following Turn 3, the track's main overtaking spot, Wehrlein cut the chicane and retained the lead of the race. But Wehrlein's energy ran out at the final corner and Di Grassi took the win by a few meters.[9]
Post-race
Pascal Wehrlein received a five-second time penalty, after cutting the chicane at turn three on the final lap, dropping him out of the podium and finishing at sixth place. With the penalty, Da Costa and Mortara were promoted to the second and third places respectively.
The result meant d'Ambrosio, who finished on fourth, still in the top of the Drivers' Championship leader with 53 points, seven point ahead of Da Costa. Di Grassi's victory enabled him to move into fourth position with 34 points, while Bird dropped out of the lead, down to third after finishing in ninth.[10] Mahindra led the Team's Championship with 83 points, with Virgin Racing dropped to second with 10 points behind. BMW Andretti are in third with 64 points. Techeetah dropped to fourth, with only one point ahead of Audi in fifth.[10]
Pascal Wehrlein
