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One day on from the local hero’s podium finish on Saturday, rain cast a shadow of uncertainty ahead of Race Two as teams and drivers got acquainted with damp conditions in the final practice session.
After struggling with understeer in FP3, both Max and team-mate Edoardo Mortara madean early exit from qualifying, lining up on the eighth and 11th rows in 16th and 21st.
With no rain falling before the race, the Tempelhof Circuit dried up quickly and Edo and Max made good progress with a careful and conservative strategy in the opening stages.
Edo made up ground on the first lap and ran as high as 10th before boxing for repairs after sustaining front wing damage on lap 16. Max meanwhile gained further ground to hold 17th.
By banking energy from the first half of the race, Max unleashed the potential of the Maserati Tipo Folgore to devastating effect and fought into the top 10 on lap 23.
He overtook Nico Müller and Lucas di Grassi for eighth and with a bold dive, cleared Mitch Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa, and Stoffel Vandoorne for a place inside the top five.
Although Max lost ground in the closing stages, he maintained his pace, battled hard with Pascal Wehrlein and overtook his fellow countryman for sixth on lap 35 of 40.
Upon taking the chequered flag, Max notched his second top 10 finish of 2023 and our first fastest lap of the season, totalling his weekend points haul to 24.
After rejoining the race following his pitstop, Edo was locked in a fight with André Lotterer and Sebastien Buemi but retired in the closing stages.
With more than half of Formula E’s ninth season now complete, Maserati MSG Racing will return to its roots to race at home at the Monaco E-Prix on May 6.
James Rossiter, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing
“We executed a strong team strategy today to deliver a good result after a difficult qualifying. Max went from 21st to sixth, with the fastest lap, which is an incredible achievement. Edo was also delivering a very impressive drive and was making good progress, before unfortunately picking up damage from an unavoidable accident. Without a Safety Car to bunch the field, this essentially ended his race. It’s a shame, because there was room for more points today, but we should be proud of our performance overall this weekend, especially after yesterday’s podium”
Edoardo Mortara, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing
“At the start of the day I struggled quite a bit with understeer which put us towards the back in qualifying, but the team put together an intelligent strategy which put us in the mix at the start. I was under-consuming and made it into the top ten, but on lap 16, the guys in front of me slowed down really quickly and I picked up front wing damage. There wasn’t anywhere for me to go. It’s frustrating, because I think a good result was on the cards, but we took some positive steps forwards this weekend.”
Maximilian Günther, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing
“This has been a good weekend for us as a team, and I’m really happy with how my race unfolded today. Going from the last row of the grid to sixth, with the fastest lap, feels amazing, and most importantly, it meant we could bring home a lot of points in the World Championship. Momentum is incredibly important in Formula E, there are a lot of races to go, and we can move forward with this result ahead of our home race in Monaco.”
Giovanni Sgro, Head of Maserati Corse
“Round 9 of the championship was another fast paced race. Max demonstrated his strong competitive edge by gaining 15 places to finish in P6 and bringing home additional points for the team; a standout move from our young driver who brought home our first Formula E podium yesterday and was also named driver of the race today. Edo didn’t make it into the top 10 today, but as always we are confident in both of our drivers' abilities. Overall a strong performance for the weekend in preparation for our next race in Monaco.”
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