Mahindra Racing ended their weekend at the inaugural Mexico ePrix with a point’s finish, after both of their drivers managing to finish within the top ten following the disqualification of Lucas di Grassi.
“It was a tough race to earn four points,” admitted Heidfeld. “Of course, I expect us to be finishing much further up the field and this will come. The circuit was very bumpy and testing for all the drivers and we saw so many incidents and mistakes during the race. It’s a tough circuit physically on the arms because some parts that are flat are not straight so you are turning all the time.”
Nick Heidfeld finished in eighth, whilst Bruno Senna was the last of the point’s finishers in tenth after the race winner was found to be under weight. The team have maintained their fifth position in the championship standings after a delightful weekend at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.
“The difficulty today was energy management. We saw that the pace of the car was good but I had to push and defend a lot in the first stint,” continued the German driver. “I had to coast more than the cars around me which we are trying to understand at the moment because usually we are very strong on energy use in races. This meant I had to be careful with my energy strategy on the final laps but it was an enjoyable battle.”
Bruno Senna, who suffered contact during his qualifying lap, start the Mexico ePrix from 16th and gained five positions throughout the race to finish 11th. Senna said: “…This was a tricky day for me as I was always going to have a difficult race after my spin in qualifying, but that’s racing. We had a strong set up and I believe we could have started and finished in a much higher position.
It was an exciting race for the fans and I would have liked to bring home more points for the team, but it was enjoyable to compete with the other drivers on a circuit that has such heritage. I hope that the Mexico ePrix continues to be part of the Formula E calendar for years to come.”
After di Grassi was disqualified and Jerome d’Ambrosio was promoted to race winner, Senna was also promoted into a points finishing position.
“With five rounds complete, we have reached the half way stage of the season and I think we have gradually connected all the dots,” admitted the Brazilian driver. “We have an efficient, reliable car, a strong team and now also a skilled and practiced car swap strategy. The pit stop was fantastic again today. We still have to find some extra raw pace so we start further forward, but I am confident that we are gaining ground and building toward a strong second half of the season.”
The season so far has seen Mahindra Racing take a total of 39 points with Heidfeld managing to score the team their first podium at the opening round of the 2015/16 FIA Formula E Championship season.
Dilbagh Gill, Team Principal of Mahindra Racing, said: “…This was a disappointing race for us. We expect to be competing closer to the front and scoring regular points in both cars.
I am pleased that having worked so hard on quicker, cleaner pit stops, that this has now become an advantageous stage of the race for us, one which allows us to gain positions. The target for us is to improve our qualifying pace and hit the ground running in the second half of the season.”
