It was a frustrating day in Monte-Carlo for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, after showing early pace in the day, both Porsche 99X Electric cars failed to finish the FIA Formula E Monaco e-Prix.
Both André Lotterer and Pascal Wehrlein showed fantastic pace in qualifying, making it through to the head-to-head stages, with both Porsche drivers pitted against each other around the narrow streets of Monaco. Wehrlein managed to set a faster time that his teammate, despite making contact with a barrier on his lap, moving on through to the next stage.
Wehrlein would face Jaguar TCS Racing‘s Mitch Evans in the battle for pole position, unfortunately for the German driver it would be the Kiwi that would edge ahead with an impressive lap to start from pole position.
Starting from the front row of the grid, Wehrlein showed promising pace, which included a pass after the tunnel exit before the harbour chicane which would see him take the lead of the race. As he pushed on to move away from the chasing field the Porsche 99X Electric suddenly lost pace, forcing him out of the race.
“What a disappointing weekend. On the positive side, the qualifying went well and we were fast in the race. We don’t yet know why the car suddenly stopped while I was in the lead.” said Wehrlein following the race.
André Lotterer wouldn’t get much opportunity to shine, starting the race from sixth place and moving up to fifth place, his race was ended early after he was forced in the barriers and out of the race at the first corner on the restart from a safety car phase.
“The race went really well at first. I was fighting for a better position when the guy behind me hit the rear of my car and shoved me into the wall.” said Lotterer.
Director of Factory Motorsport Formula E, Florian Modlinger was understandably disappointed with the end result of the weekend, but was happy with the pace that was shown in the early stages.
“This is a bitter day for the team,” Modlinger reflected. “After a very good first half, Pascal was leading the field only to have a technical defect throw him out of contention. We now have to analyse what happened. At the restart after the safety car phase, André was knocked out of the race by a competitor.
“The driver and the team put in a strong qualifying performance and a promising start to the race, but unfortunately weren’t rewarded in the end.” he added.
“Still, we’re looking ahead with confidence. We’ve been competitive on all tracks this season. In Berlin, we’ll try to come back even stronger and earn the points that we missed out on in Monaco despite our good effort.”
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