WEHRLEIN: TRUSTING PORSCHE'S STRATEGY "RIGHT CALL" FOR FORMULA E MISANO WIN
Wehrlein remained in contention for victory throughout the 26-lap contest at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli as Formula E staged its second race of the weekend at the permanent Italian venue.
Oliver Rowland passed Wehrlein for the lead five laps from home and the pair began to gap the chasing pack behind with the latter having saved 2% more energy, before falling to more than one second behind on the final lap.
But a problem with his onboard lap counter meant Rowland and his Nissan team had misjudged how much energy would be required to finish the race, allowing Wehrlein to inherit the lead, and victory, on the final lap.
“I took over the lead and initially it was the plan to keep the lead but he [Rowland] was putting a lot of pressure [on me] and I was sure if I was trying to defend I would just lose energy,” said Wehrlein.
“So in the end I didn’t defend, I let him through and my team kept telling me I’m 2-3% up on energy, so I was very surprised about that and actually until the last lap I was not even sure if that was correct.
“Then his energy I guess was dying in the last lap and that’s when we took over. Really good job and the right call to trust the information in the end.”
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3, 1st position, takes the chequered flag ahead of Jake Dennis, Andretti Global, Porsche 99X Electric Gen3, 2nd position, Nick Cassidy, Jaguar TCS Racing, Jaguar I-TYPE 6, 3rd position
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Porsche enjoyed a strong weekend on Formula E’s inaugural visit to Misano, as reigning champion Jake Dennis claimed two runner-up finishes for customer team Andretti, which puts the Briton level on points with Wehrlein at the head of the standings.
The German manufacturer had also claimed victory on Saturday in the opening race with Antonio Felix da Costa, but the Portuguese driver was disqualified as his car failed post-race technical checks.
Wehrlein himself had failed to score on Saturday after pitting for a new front wing and believes a reset within the team was needed ahead of Sunday’s race.
“We reset for today, we know that yesterday Antonio won but I would have been there without incidents,” said Wehrlein.
“I think the best thing we could do is just try and do our best possible job and focusing on the job, not being too frustrated about yesterday because today is another opportunity, and we took that.”
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