FE | Berlin: Mortara beats Vandoorne and takes Mahindra to pole

The first pole of the weekend in Berlin goes to Mahindra. The German weekend starts immediately with a big surprise, because Edoardo Mortara was able to put the Indian car in pole position, beating Stoffel Vandoorne’s DS in the final.

The Swiss driver put together a wonderful qualifying, proving extremely fast right from the group stage, and then overcoming the duels one after the other until reaching the final. In the decisive moment of qualifying Mortara did not disappoint, finding the time and, consequently, the pole position especially in the central sector, where he was able to edge out around two tenths of a second from Vandoorne.

An exceptional result which, as explained by the Mahindra driver himself, partially redeems the difficult start to the season: behind the scenes, however, the team and Mortara continued to work also to find better harmony after the team change, which in Berlin it matured with a beautiful pole position, as it was in 2022. Being able to overcome the efficiency problems of the Indian Powertrain will not be easy, but for the team and Mortara himself it is a great opportunity to bring home a good result.

The second row will see the other DS, that of Jean-Eric Vergne, beaten in the first semi-final by an excellent Mortara. For the French-American team this is an excellent performance, because it was able to bring both cars into the first two rows, confirming its great competitiveness in qualifying: now the objective is to materialize the potential seen on the flying lap , an aspect that has sometimes been missing during this season.

Alongside the transalpine driver there will be the other surprise of the morning, namely Sergio Sette Camara: the Brazilian took his ERT to third position, shining on the flying lap. Clearly the English team is lacking in terms of long-distance efficiency, but be careful not to underestimate the Brazilian’s management of the race, especially if the group doesn’t split up in the first part of the race.

Pascal Wehrlein, one of the home heroes, will start from the third row: the Porsche driver was eliminated by Jean-Eric Vergne during the first quarter-final by around 80 thousandths, but it is still another performance that places him among the duels, confirming the consistency in qualifying that he was looking for in the winter.

Excellent performance also for Jehan Daruvala, who took his Tipo Folgore to the final phase of qualifying after having brilliantly passed the cut in group A. Unfortunately the Maserati driver will be forced to serve a double penalty of twenty positions each due to the replacement of the change, so it will be a comeback race, as happened for Max Gunther in Brazil for the same reason. However, on the bright side, today’s performance from the Indian driver could also be a good sign for Sunday’s event, although Formula E has often shown that values ​​on the field can change in the space of a few hours.

Maximilian Gunther, Maserati Racing, Maserati Tipo Folgore

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Overall, however, the Trident team proved to be particularly competitive, because the other Tipo Folgore of Max Gunther was also able to enter the duels, but was eliminated by the “twin” car DS Penske of Stoffel Vandoorne in the third quarter of the final with a gap of about two tenths. The German will now start from fifth place on the starting grid.

Also noteworthy is the excellent performance of the ABT Cupra with Lucas di Grassi, capable of bringing his car to seventh position after having already performed well in free practice: this is the home race for the German team and, also with Kelvin Van der Linde (eleventh), special substitute for Nico Mueller for the weekend, the car is proving to be competitive: the hope is to realize this potential seen in qualifying, although the efficiency problems due to the Mahindra Powertrain will represent an obstacle that is not so easy to overcome .

Groups: several contenders for the world championship were immediately excluded

As often happens in Formula E, there was no shortage of surprises during qualifying, starting from group A, the first of the day. Two of the candidates for the world championship chase, namely Mitch Evans, as well as the current reigning champion, Jake Dennis, were unable to overcome the duel phase: indeed, the Andretti driver will be forced to start from the back, having finished in eleventh and last position in group A.

Jake Dennis, Andretti Global

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

It is not the first time that the Englishman is the protagonist of a subpar qualifying: even in one of the two events in Misano he started from the last rows of the grid, and then worked his way up to the podium area. Considering that teammate Norman Nato will also start from the back, despite having opted for a different setup from that of Dennis, one can assume that the team’s difficulties may be linked to some errors in the tire preparation phase rather than to a problem specific related to the structure. Probably the new Berlin layout will not offer a race as lively as the Italian one, but the hope of the American team is to exploit the racing opportunities to attempt another comeback.

Antonio Felix da Costa was also immediately out of group A, fifth and distant from an excellent Jehan Daruvala by around 84 thousandths. The Portuguese of the Porsche, eighth on the grid, is also joined by Dan Ticktum with the ERT, Sacha Fenestraz with the Nissan, as well as Jordan King and Joel Eriksson: it is important to mention how both the British driver of Mahindra and the Swedish one of Envision fall into that group which exceptionally replaces for this weekend the official bearers of the respective teams, who had to give up the German appointment to fulfill their contractual duties in the WEC for the six hours of Spa.

Even in group B there was no shortage of surprises, especially regarding the exclusion of two other title contenders, namely Nick Cassidy with Jaguar and Oliver Rowland with Nissan. For the New Zealand Jaguar driver it is not a bad qualifying in absolute terms, given that he will start from the fifth row also serving Daruvala’s penalty, but starting in the group always represents an unknown for possible contacts. Difficult morning also for Rowland, a bit as we had already seen in Monte Carlo: in the Principality the Englishman then managed to complete a good comeback to return to the points zone and the objective is to try to repeat it again here in Berlin from eighth row.

Kelvin van der Linde, ABT CUPRA Formula E Team, M9Electro

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

Even though he was eliminated from group B, it is interesting to note the good performance of Taylor Barnard with McLaren, capable of finishing ahead of his teammate Jake Hughes: the young rookie, who here once again replaces the injured Sam Bird, was was the author of a very solid race, will he be able to repeat himself in Berlin too?

Kelvin Van der Linde also did well with the ABT Cupra replacing Nico Mueller, involved in the WEC: the South African finished in sixth place in group B, which earned him eleventh place on the starting grid, thus making him one of the best “reserves”. ” of the weekend, given that in Berlin he replaces Nico Mueller, busy with Peugeot in the WEC world championship.