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Edoardo Mortara
FP3 // P13
Qualifying // P10
Race // P8
Championship // P11 [36 points]
Felipe Massa
FP3 // P23
Qualifying // P18
Race // P22
Championship // P19 [2 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing
Championship // P9 [38 points]
After bringing about an end to a five-month drought in action one day earlier, ROKiT Venturi Racing again took to the reverse Tempelhof Airport Circuit on Thursday to complete the first of three double-header events in Formula E’s Season 6 finale.
Over the course of practice, the Monegasque marque continued to refine its 2019/20 package and come qualifying, drivers Edoardo Mortara and Felipe Massa took P10 and P18, lining up on the fifth and ninth rows of the grid.
Despite losing places at the start, Edo fronted a fight-back as the Swiss-Italian fought forward to run as high as P6 while Felipe gained five positions to move into P12, strategically using Attack Mode in the closing stages of the race.
Negotiating difficulties under braking, Edo was shuffled down the order but ultimately prevailed in P8, coming out on top of a race-long scrap with reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne to score four points despite suffering from a slow puncture.
A software error that impacted Felipe’s energy management and consumption saw the Brazilian slow on the final lap of the race, ultimately taking P22 after a strong performance until that point.
Susie Wolff – ROKiT Venturi Racing Team Principal
“Four points more from today’s race than yesterday so we made a step forward. Ultimately, the pace wasn’t quite there and braking issues impacted Edo’s points charge quite heavily. It was unfortunate to see Felipe to drop back in the final lap, especially after such a strong comeback. We have four races to go so we now we need to get our heads down and focus on the immediate challenge - scoring more points on Saturday and Sunday.”
Edoardo Mortara
“Today’s race will go down as one of the most difficult of the season for me. I had more pace and more usable energy than the cars around me but braking issues and a slow puncture meant that I could not pass them. I was locking my front wheels heavily in the final laps and that slowed me down a lot. For me it feels like a race of what could have been but in the end, scoring four points is not the end of the world. I was hoping for more but it is what it is. I’m looking forward to racing again at the weekend where I’m sure we can do more.”
Felipe Massa
“After a difficult qualifying, I made a good start to the race. My pace was strong and I was gaining positions, moving to just outside of the points. After the second Full Course Yellow, I encountered a strange situation on my steering wheel in which my energy targets and readings were incorrect. This heavily impacted my energy management and consumption. I’m really disappointed with this because we were looking strong until the final 10 laps. We need to investigate what happened and fix this issue so we can hit the ground running in the next batch of races.”
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