After a disappointing Saturday in Rome that saw him retire early on, Alexander Sims was one of the stars of Sunday’s second race as he claimed the first podium finish of the year for both himself and his Mahindra Racing team.
After getting through to the pole position shootout on Sunday morning, Sims drove superbly to run inside the top four for much of the afternoon. He was able to pass Norman Nato to run third and then jumped Pascal Wehrlein for second as the race resumed following a brief full course yellow.
Sims was not able to maintain the same kind of pace as leader Stoffel Vandoorne, but he had enough to stay ahead of those behind him to claim the podium place. He even had a shot at the win after a late safety car intervention, but Vandoorne had enough pace and a Fanboost to keep himself ahead.
However, Sims was able to score his first podium with Mahindra and give the team’s new powertrain partner ZF their first top two finish in FIA Formula E.
“I’m pretty happy with the result today!” said Sims. “The weekend was really split into two halves; yesterday [Saturday] it was pretty difficult in general, it felt like we could have got something from the race but, by being taken out on lap one, it was over before it had begun.
“But today we did good work in practice, the car was brilliant in group qualifying, and we know the car this season is strong in the race and very efficient, and we were able to put that to good use. We had genuinely good pace, there was an exciting overtake on Pascal [Wehrlein] on the full course yellow restart and, after that, it was just ticking the laps down.
“It’s nice for the whole of Mahindra and ZF and I’m happy to get my first podium with the team.”
