Pascal Wehrlein recorded his second victory in Formula E’s Race at Home Challenge, winning on the streets of Hong Kong to take the championship lead.
After dominating in Monaco last week – taking a full haul of 27 points – the German racer failed to reach the same heights in qualifying, with ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara taking pole position in a wet classification session.
With Wehrlein securing second on the grid, the German was unable to get the jump on Mortara at the start, getting caught up in a multi-car pileup in Turn 1.
This allowed Jaguar Racing’s James Calado to sneak up into second place while Mortara opened up a lead of over two seconds ahead of the Briton.
Wehrlein, meanwhile, settled into third place and quickly inherited second, overtaking into Turn 1 on the fourth tour of the Central Harbourfront Circuit.
On the fifth lap, Wehrlein inherited the lead when Mortara made a mistake in Turn 3, clipping the wall and spinning as a result to rejoin in fifth overall.
Opening up an advantage at the front of the pack, Wehrlein took the chequered flag to record his second consecutive victory in the series, with Stoffel Vandoorne taking the runner-up spot, over four seconds adrift of the winner.
Also getting passed by Vandoorne ahead, Calado completed the podium positions after gaining nine positions while Nyck de Vries was fourth, rounding out a double points finish for Mercedes EQ.
Despite running with extensive damage, Mortara held off a hard-charging Antonio Felix da Costa to complete the top five while sixth for the latter Portuguese saw DS Techeetah notch its first points finish of the series.
Robin Frijns took seventh to continue his points-scoring run while Oliver Turvey held off Sebastien Buemi to take eighth place for NIO 333. Oliver Rowland took the final available point in the second Nissan e.dams car.
Outside of the top 10, it was a disappointing day for BMW i Andretti Motorsport’s Maximilian Guenther who only managed 19th place, experiencing an uncharacteristically messy race after total dominance over the first two rounds.
Failing to record points, the German has dropped to second in the Drivers’ Championship, with back-to-back winner Wehrlein holding a five-point lead at the top of the table.
In the Challenge Grid, Lucas Mueller won over Joshua Rogers, passing the Australian to take victory with only two laps to go while Kevin Siggy took third.
# | Driver | Team | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Pascal Wehrlein | Mahindra Racing | 15:13.727s |
2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | Mercedes-Benz EQ | +4.033s |
3 | James Calado | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | +11.828s |
4 | Nyck de Vries | Mercedes-Benz EQ | +14.756s |
5 | Edoardo Mortara | Rokit Venturi Racing | +17.801s |
6 | Antonio Felix da Costa | DS Techeetah | +18.409s |
7 | Robin Frijns | Envision Virgin Racing | +19.113s |
8 | Oliver Turvey | NIO 333 FE Team | +24.696s |
9 | Sebastien Buemi | Nissan e.dams | +25.288s |
10 | Oliver Rowland | Nissan e.dams | +25.458s |
11 | Ma Qing Hua | NIO 333 FE Team | +27.277s |
12 | Mitch Evans | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | +29.875s |
13 | Daniel Abt | Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler | +33.877s |
14 | Nico Mueller | GEOX Dragon | 12 Laps |
15 | Andre Lotterer | Tag-Heuer Porsche | 11 Laps |
16 | Neel Jani | Tag-Heuer Porsche | 10 Laps |
17 | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Mahindra Racing | 9 Laps |
18 | Felipe Massa | Rokit Venturi Racing | 8 Laps |
19 | Maximilian Guenther | BMW i Andretti | 7 Laps |
20 | Sam Bird | Envision Virgin Racing | 4 Laps |
21 | Lucas di Grassi | Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler | 4 Laps |
22 | Alexander Sims | BMW i Andretti | 4 Laps |
23 | Brendon Hartley | GEOX Dragon | 2 Laps |
24 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Techeetah | 0 Laps |