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A chaotic race on the city’s streets presented a handful of obstacles to overcome, but with a resilient attitude in the face of poor luck, the team rose to every challenge presented.
Regardless of a disappointing outcome, improved performance was clear, and promise was evident, and from the jaws of defeat came a strong recovery and a points haul.
Reliving our weekend in The City of Pearls, this is our race recap.
Marking the 27th city to host Formula E and therefore, as the World Championship’s newest race, the Hyderabad E-Prix presented a complete reset for all teams and drivers.
With the playing field even, and after a promising practice period, there was an air of potential in the Maserati MSG Racing garage. As such, ambitions were high for qualifying.
From Groups A and B, every ambition was realised by Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther, who both fought their way into the duels to secure our first double duel appearance this season.
Max faced Mitch Evans but was pipped by the impending polesitter, while Edo went head-to-head with René Rast, vying to defeat the McLaren racer.
Although the Swiss-Italian outpaced the German, track extensions led to lap time deletions for both, but with Edo starting seventh and Max fifth, hopes were pinned on a strong start in the race.
Upon lining up on the grid, Edo’s sights were firmly set forwards, but after a strong getaway, he found himself searching for space, with every gap filled by cars running side-by-side ahead.
An opportunistic move around the outside of Turn Three from Nick Cassidy pushed Edo down to eighth, but still, he dug in deep and continued to rally in the opening stages.
With a faster package at his disposal, he spotted an opening on Sam Bird, but struggled to slow sufficiently when braking off-line to unfortunately clatter the side of Cassidy on lap two.
After losing his front wing, Edo quickly pitted for repairs and rejoined the race in 22nd, facing an uphill recovery for a seemingly distant hope of scoring points.
While Edo boxed, Max continued to hold fifth and was in hot pursuit of Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz as the battle for the podium positions began to heat up.
On lap 11, he lost ground to Bird but with a buffer behind, decided to activate Attack Mode on lap 13, preparing to unleash the increased power to maximum effect.
Upon driving through the activation zone, however, the track closed up ahead as Bird struck Evans to create a three-car roadblock, leaving Max with nowhere to go.
When stuck behind the Jaguar duo – and Fenestraz who was also involved – Max lost countless seconds before finally resuming the race in 16th, with his hopes of a podium over.
Despite a fraught start, not all hope was lost and spurred on by a longing for points, both Edo and Max continued to fight and continued to make progress.
A Safety Car on lap 23 of 32 lended a lifeline, and with the pack bunched up, a comeback performance was on.
When the race resumed on lap 25, Max sprung an overtake on Rast for 13th, and next cleared an ailing Jake Dennis while Edo also made progress, holding 14th after overtaking Nico Müller.
By both passing Fenestraz, the duo held 12th and 13th on the road, but with Max facing a five-second time penalty, swapped positions with Edo on the final lap.
A time penalty for Lucas di Grassi at the chequered flag immediately pushed Edo up to 11th, but a final sentence for Sebastien Buemi after a power overuse promoted him to the top 10.
With one point gained after all hope was lost, the Hyderabad E-Prix portrayed a story of perseverance and tenacity and served a reminder of Formula E’s unpredictable nature.
Progress was clear, however, and despite a difficult afternoon, an improvement in pace renewed our optimism.
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