Wehrlein celebrates on Saturday; image via Formula E
Pascal Wehrelin enjoyed the race weekend of his life in Diryah. And both times, he survived a battle with fellow Porsche-powered driver Jake Dennis.
Pascal Wehrlein, who himself drives for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E team, surged from ninth to take the win by 0.531-seconds on Friday, celebrating his 50th start with his second win.
He again added to that total, all of which come at his current team, on Saturday. Starting from fifth after a better qualifying performance, Wehrlein had a larger lead at the line, even despite a late-race safety car stacking up the field.
“This weekend has been incredible, a double victory!” Mortara said after the second race. “Our race pace was incredible again and today we had the perfect strategy. What can I say, just amazing for my team – all their hard work has finally paid off and I am so proud of them. This weekend is one I will never forget.”
“I would say yesterday was a bit more exciting as I had more cars to pass,” he added. Still, though, “today was not easy and I would say it was even a bit more difficult. Obviously, the others learned from yesterday.”
He’s only the fifth driver in series history to win both races of a double-header. His win in both the second and third race of the Formula E championship gives him the points lead.
And, with a runner-up finish in the opening round in Mexico, he hasn’t finished worse than second this year.
Sergio Sette Camara, NIO 333 FE Team, NIO 333 ER9 and Nick Cassidy, Envision Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6; image via Formula E
Neither has Jake Dennis, who surrendered the points lead on Saturday. The Avalanche Andretti Formula E Team driver was happy with his consistency.
“You know you’re having a really good season when you’re a little bit disappointed with P2!” Dennis quipped. “We just didn’t have a great start, Pascal had a good one and we had a bad one.”
“He can have this one, but we are going to come out swinging in India and try and take the Championship lead off him,” he promised. “We need to collect the points while we can and try build the biggest lead we can because they are definitely going to start to close the gap.”
Jake Hughes, NEOM McLaren Formula E Team, e-4ORCE 04; image via Formula E
The third step of the podium was the only variation all weekend. On Friday it was occupied by Dennis’ teammate at Jaguar TCS Racing, Mitch Evans, but René Rast gave new team NEOM McLaren Formula E Team their first podium on Saturday.
“I am over the moon to be honest,” Rast said. “The team deserved it as they put so much hard work into this and we were executing so well the whole weekend, especially from where I came from in Mexico and on Thursday when we had no pace.”
“It feels like a victory,” he concluded, “and I cannot thank the boys and girls enough at NEOM McLaren, they did an awesome job and it is a lot of fun working with them. I am very happy.”
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