BERLIN — Edoardo Mortara (ROKiT Venturi Racing) produced a complete drive to seal victory in the Shell Recharge Berlin E-Prix, round seven of the Formula E world championship.
Jean-Éric Vergne (DS TECHEETAH) and Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) filled the podium.
Mortara had it all to do to keep a fiesty-looking Vergne back and the decisive moment came on lap 37 as the Venturi driver went on the defensive at turn six, luring JEV into a move resulting in the Frenchman diving too deep and falling 1.5s back.
From there, the win was Mortara’s, though Vergne scrapped hard to take second spot from fourth on the grid.
“What a day. After the qualifying we were already very happy, but this race was amazing, very stressful because there were different strategies that I had to defend. In the end everything went alright, and I’m very happy,” Mortara said. “You have to ask him [Vergne] about what happened at the end! He tried to overtake me but I was kind of anticipating it, but luckily for me he couldn’t really stop at the apex of the corner, and I couldn’t pass him straight away, and I knew that he had spent a lot of energy so it would be difficult for him to pass me again.”
Vandoorne produced one of the drives of the day to recover from being shuffled down the order to 12th at the end of lap 12. The Belgian had slipped by six by the halfway stage and looked as good a bet as any for the race win. Ultimately, he had to settle for third after a back-and-forth with Vergne and while the lead pair fought each other but that was enough to see the Mercedes-EQ driver hold on to the standings lead.
TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team pair, André Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein, and Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) fought amongst themselves throughout, eventually winding up with Lotterer in fourth ahead of Evans in fifth and Wehrlein sixth with Evans no doubt the happiest of that trio to score well having started ninth.
Sam Bird showed good pace in the other Jaguar to follow in seventh having battled his way from 15th on the grid. António Félix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH) had run with his teammate towards the front of the pack early on but slipped to eighth, as did front-row qualifier Alexander Sims (Mahindra Racing) who finished ninth.
Reigning champion Nyck de Vries couldn’t climb through the order as his teammate had done – the pair having run together through the opening laps – but the Dutchman nonetheless salvaged a point with 10th.
That sees Vandoorne move to 96 points, with Vergne three points back and Evans 11 shy of the Frenchman while Mortara leapt into fourth.