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Edoardo Mortara
Practice 3 // P14
Qualifying // P20
Race // P12
Championship // P9 [74 points]
Norman Nato
Practice 3 // P24
Qualifying // P13
Race // DNF
Championship // P21 [17 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing
Championship // P9 [91 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing narrowly missed out on a points-scoring result in the second leg of the London E-Prix amid a chaotic race at the ExCeL arena.
One day on from a P9 result in the UK capital, Monaco’s only racing team leapt back into action having made a handful of set-up changes to improve prospects on Sunday.
From Group 1, Edoardo Mortara qualified in P20 while team-mate Norman Nato lined-up on the grid in P13 after launching his classification efforts from Group 4.
A difficult start saw Norman slip down to P16 when the race got underway while Edo fell to P24 after stalling on the grid as a result of a technical issue.
Showcasing a fighting recovery drive, Norman quickly recovered to the top 10 until, with only three laps to go, the Frenchman was struck from the side by Jaguar’s Sam Bird.
This forced Norman to retire from a points-scoring position in the 13th race of the season.
Edo, meanwhile, continued his assault, and after sitting in last place at the end of lap 1, the Swiss-Italian fought forward to take P13 at the chequered flag.
A disqualification for Lucas di Grassi, in turn, promoted Edo up to P12, only two positions shy of points.
“Overall, this has been a challenging weekend for us. In both races, we had some opportunities to secure a good set of results, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalise on or maximise those chances when they did arise. Leaving London with only two points on the board is disappointing but strangely, it puts us in a better position for Berlin next month with Edo in Group 2 and Norman in Group 4 for qualifying.”
“It was always going to be difficult to achieve points starting from the back of the grid and the poor start put me on the back foot immediately. We’re not sure what caused the issue I had on the grid so we’ll have to investigate this before Berlin next month. Coming back through the field to finish P12 is the best I could realistically achieve but missing out on the top 10 might be a blessing because I’ll no longer be in Group 1 qualifying for Berlin. With only two races to go, I’m going to be pushing hard because the season is still open and one strong final weekend could make a big difference to the championship standings.”
“I’m very disappointed with the race today and it’s frustrating to lose a points finish through no fault of our own. Starting from P13, I was confident that I would be able to challenge the top 10 but I lost ground on lap 1 because I was squeezed quite a lot. It was really difficult to overtake and we saw a lot of incidents but by using Attack Mode at the right time, I was able to move forward though and I was having a good fight with Cassidy for P9. With three laps to go, Sam [Bird] tried to overtake me into Turn 10 but it didn’t work out and we both finished the race in the wall which he received a grid penalty for for the next race. Moving into Berlin I’m going to be pushing as hard as ever so we can finish the season on a high.”
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