Mortara and de Vries storm to Berlin Formula E victories

Mortara scores a first pole position

On Saturday, Mortara took a superbly executed second win of the season for the independent Venturi team around a track that encourages the best (and largely cleanest) racing spectacle in Formula E. Its expansive nature gives these drivers the room to race properly, and generally they do not disappoint.

In qualifying, Mortara made it safely through to the entertaining one-on-one duels, then defeated Porsche’s Andre Lotterer in his quarter-final and DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix da Costa in his semi-final. He faced Alexander Sims in the final, who knocked out Jean-Eric Vergne in the other semi-final, but in odd circumstances. Remarkably, the pair set identical times, but Sims went through only because he’d been first on the road and therefore first to set the time. Vergne was not happy, and for good reason. Even Sims agreed it was a strange ruling.

In the final, Sims was up on Mortara in the first two sectors after the Venturi ran wide at the first corner. But Mortara brilliantly pulled it back to take his first Formula E pole position.

Mortara keeps his cool

The Swiss driver showed composure under pressure to take victory in race one, helped by a good strategy on when to take his two doses of Attack Mode power boost. He was always in control, even if he still had plenty of work to do to secure the victory.

After his second deployment of the extra power boost, Mortara calmly passed Vandoorne to claim his lead back, but then faced a determined challenge from Vergne who moved up to second and lunged for victory. He made it past, but Mortara kept his cool and took the place straight back on the exit of the turn to leave Vergne vulnerable to attack from Vandoorne and Lotterer.

That was the final order of the top four, with Jaguar’s Mitch Evans and Sam Bird fifth and seventh, sandwiching Pascal Wehrlein in sixth. Sims dropped from his front row start slot to ninth behind da Costa, which was more in keeping with Mahinda’s tricky and rather low-key season.

Mortara duels to a second pole

On Sunday for round eight of the 2022 Formula E world championship, Mortara put in a repeat performance in qualifying to take his second pole position on the reversed track layout. The Swiss qualified fastest from the Group B runners as title rival Vergne missed the cut in fifth. He then defeated Envision driver Nick Cassidy in his quarter-final and reigning world champion de Vries in his semi. Mortara found himself against Robin Frijns in the final, and when the Dutchman made a small mistake that second pole position of the weekend was in the bag.

De Vries ruins Mortara’s double hopes

But Mortara’s bid for a clean sweep in Berlin was lost in the opening seconds of the race when de Vries made a fantastic surprise move, diving down the inside of the long right-hand Turn 1 to take a lead that became decisive. As ever, Attack Mode shook things up, the drivers being forced to run off line to gain what was this time a single dose of power boost for eight minutes. The action was frenetic with battles playing out down the field. But out front, de Vries was in charge to claim his second win of the season for Mercedes EQ. Mortara concluded a strong weekend for the Merc-powered Venturi team with a second place to go with his Saturday win. Points leader Vandoorne made it a Mercedes 1-3, with Mortara’s team-mate Lucas di Grassi in fourth.

For the most part, the wide Tempelhof track allowed Formula E’s drivers to show the series in its best light as they raced hard but with minimal heavy contact. Still, there was a dose of controversy on the final lap when Frijns rammed da Costa from behind on the straight in their battle for fifth, almost sending the DS Techeetah driver smashing into the wall. Frijns inevitably had the momentum to pass and snatched the place, leaving da Costa angry that his rival wasn’t penalised for the move.

Oliver Rowland was the best of the Brits in seventh for Mahindra, with Lotterer eighth for Porsche and Vergne down in ninth. Rome double-winner Evans completed an ultimately disappointing weekend for Jaguar in tenth.

The pair of podium finishes for Vandoorne has left him with a healthy 12-point lead at the top of the standings ahead of Berlin’s big mover Mortara. The Swiss finished a close second to de Vries in the standings last year and still has plenty of time to close the gap to Vandoorne, although Vergne remains third, just four points further back, with Evans losing ground in fourth. Reigning champion de Vries is way back in sixth right now, but with eight rounds still to come has time to charge back into contention.

The series moves on to the streets of Jakarta next for a single race on 4^th June.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.