Diriyah: Daruvala comes close to achieving the feat, a weekend of comebacks for Gunther | FP

Günther: it's a trio of points

Double placing in the points for the Maserati in the first double header weekend of the season, held on Friday and Saturday nights at Diriyah, in Saudi Arabia. As in Mexico City, the driver who brought the Trident into the top-10 was once again the German Maximilian Günther, 7th in race 1 e 9th in the next race.

Two comeback races

Having qualified 8th in the first qualifying session, the 26-year-old then recovered a position in the race after a good game of strategy, commenting on his Friday performance as follows: “Seventh place it was the best we could get, but it was a good race. Overtaking on this track is extremely difficult and we did our best with the strategy. I think we executed it to the max. I felt the car was good, I gained a position, I scored some good, solid points and I have almost got the fastest lap of the race“. Different speech on the day of Saturday, especially for the qualification which ended only in eleventh position. Despite this, the German did not give up recovering up to ninth placethus securing other world championship points: “It was a difficult day for us – he added – our Qualifying didn't go according to plan and on the first lap we dropped to 12th place, but we managed to recover a few positions to finish in ninth place. We executed a good strategy, so a big thank you to the team and especially to Jehan who helped me. I think we did the best we could. It definitely wasn't an ideal day, but we turned it into a solid result. We competed in three races, achieved three points finishes and we had a great start to the year. I feel good and can't wait for the next race in Sao Paulo.”

Misstep on Day 1

Still chasing his first points in Formula E, however, is his teammate Jehan Daruvala. Having made a mistake in qualifying on Friday, the Indian driver started from 21st place on the grid, finishing the race in twentieth position: “Considering our qualifying, I think the race would have been difficult anyway, but compared to Mexico City I think I made good progress. In my first race I finished quite far from my rivals, while this weekend I managed to stay with them and consume little, which was a great learning point.”

One step away from the first joy

Daruvala then amazed everyone during the second round, starting with the qualifications: in addition to having passed the preliminary round for the first time, the 25-year-old reached the fifth position on the grid losing in the quarterfinals to Rowland. Having remained consistently in the points even after the start, the rookie had to raise the white flag for a technical problem with 9 laps to gowhich thus ruined its main objective: “My race wasn't easy, but it was nice to fight in the group, run at the front and gain experience. Advancing in duels allowed me to have opportunities in competition, and for most of the time we were in the points, but unfortunately I had a technical problem that forced me to withdraw. It's a shame, but I can look back at this weekend with the knowledge that I have improved my knowledge and made good progress. I look forward to continuing my Formula E journey in Brazil.”