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In Numbers
Edoardo Mortara
Free Practice Three // 2nd
Qualifying // 11th [1:39.880, Group A]
Race // DNF
Fastest Lap // 1:43.903
Championship // 5th [49 points]
Lucas di Grassi
Free Practice Three // 10th
Qualifying // 12th [1:40.065, Group B]
Race // 8th
Fastest Lap // 1:42.075
Championship // 9th [29 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing
Championship // 4th [78 points]
In Detail
ROKiT Venturi Racing maintained its FIA Formula E World Championship points-scoring run in the second part of the 2022 Rome E-Prix,with Lucas di Grassi taking eighth in the Eternal City.
The Monegasque marque made progress overnight following a promising performance on Saturday and showed evident pace in the third practice session of the weekend.
In qualifying, however, both Edoardo Mortara and Lucas missed out on the duel stages by the smallest of margins and started the race from 11th and 12th on the grid.
Edo launched his top 10 bid on lap one by overtaking Sergio Sette Camara, although later contact with Antonio Felix da Costa halted the Swiss-Italian’s progress.
With extensive front wing and suspension damage, Edo was forced to retire which left Lucas as the team’s sole charger.
The Season 3 champion powered to the top 10 by also clearing Sette Camara early on and after a second Safety Car period with 10 minutes to go, he continued to make progress.
In an impressive recovery drive, the Brazilian overtook Jake Dennis, Da Costa, Pascal Wehrlein, and Sam Bird to finish a provisional sixth at the chequered flag.
Unfortunately, a five-second grid penalty negated this recovery and demoted Lucas to eighth in the final classification to take home four points.
Formula E’s Season 8 campaign will resume on April 30 in Monaco for ROKiT Venturi Racing’s home event.
In Their Words
“It was a very difficult race for us today and overall, this wasn’t the weekend we had hoped for. Edo made a good start and made it into the top 10 on lap one but was taken out early on. Lucas was able to recover to the points and did well under the circumstances to finish sixth provisionally. With his time penalty he was still able to take home four points, which, in a championship that demands so much consistency, is important. From here we need to regroup, try to learn as much as we can from this weekend and place all of our focus on Monaco which will happen very soon.”
“It’s disappointing to end the weekend like this because I feel that we had the potential to score some good points today. I was less than one-tenth away from getting into the duels in qualifying but I believe our race pace was much better. I had an okay start but when I tried to overtake Antonio [Felix da Costa] he closed the door on me. My suspension was badly damaged and after the accident, it was very difficult to steer. It ended my race. It’s frustrating because I feel that the opportunities were there today but this is motorsport. We will come back stronger in Monaco.”
“Race pace was very good and against everything thrown at us we still manage to go from P12 to P6. We don’t accept this penalty easily because we firmly disagree with the rationale behind the decision. Monaco we gonna give it all.”
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