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Edoardo Mortara
FP1 // P2
FP2 // P14
Qualifying // P4
Race // P2
Championship // P2 [92 points]
Norman Nato
FP1 // P17
FP2 // P10
Qualifying // P5
Race // P4
Championship // P20 [29 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing
Championship // P8 [121 points]
ROKiT Venturi Racing advanced its World Championship title prospects further in Berlin as Edoardo Mortara made a return to the Formula E podium for the fourth time this season.
Racing in the German capital, Monaco’s only racing team showed promising pace in the run-up to the penultimate round of Season 7 and capitalised upon every opportunity to score a total haul of 30 points and narrowly missing out on a double podium.
In qualifying from Groups 2 and 4, Edo and team-mate Norman Nato both progressed to the Super Pole shootout and secured P4 and P5 on the grid for the 45-minute + 1 lap affair.
With a clean getaway, both held position over the opening stages but began to fight forward after strategically deploying Attack Mode with 22-minutes + 1 lap remaining.
The 35kW power advantage proved to be crucial, and by clearing both DS TECHEETAH and both Audi drivers, the pair moved to the front, running in formation in P1 and P2.
Running on the alternate overcut strategy, Lucas di Grassi capitalised upon his power advantage, however, first overtaking Norman and then Edo to demote the pair to P2 and P3.
Nevertheless, Edo remained within range of the Season 3 champion to launch one last offensive on the final lap, falling only 0.141-seconds shy at the wave of the chequered flag to take P2.
Behind, Norman secured his best finish of the season to date by taking P4, narrowly missing out on his maiden podium by only 0.090s after a late-race battle with Jaguar’s Mitch Evans.
By extending his points tally to 92, Edo now sits in P2 in the Drivers’ Championship, three points behind leader Nyck de Vries with only one race remaining.
“Coming into this weekend, we knew that we needed to score a big haul of points. We knew what we had to do, we remained focussed, and Edo and Norman delivered a brilliant race and the result is down to an incredible team effort. Our use of Attack Mode proved to be crucial to the end result and if we were a bit riskier, we could have had both cars on the podium but in the end, we’ll take P2 and P4. This was a strong first day in Berlin but now our full focus is on tomorrow and we’re starting from zero again.”
“Heading into this weekend, being in championship contention on Sunday was the always the goal and because of today’s result, we’re now in that position. P2 is a great result not only for me but also the team and we’ve continued to show just how strong our race pace can be this season. Going into the final laps, I knew that it was going to be difficult to overtake Lucas [di Grassi]. I tried to put him under pressure, but unfortunately he didn’t put a foot wrong. Even though we’re on the podium, we have to stay quite grounded and we can’t be too happy because we still have a lot of work to do and tomorrow, we fight for the World Championship. Hopefully, by the end of Sunday, we can celebrate a bit more.”
“On paper, today was quite a good race for me. On this circuit, we know that energy management is extremely tricky and at the beginning, we were all trying to stay in the slipstream so we could under consume and be in a better position for the second half. Everything was very much under control and by using Attack Mode at the right time, we were in a very good position but I feel that there were parts of the strategy where we could have done better. It’s a bit frustrating because the pace was so good, we have a race winning car and I think we missed out on a double podium. We have scored a good haul of points and I hope for even better tomorrow.”
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