This weekend in the shadow of Berlin’s famous Tempelhof airport, the fourteenth and fifteenth Es Prix to be held there since 2015. This is, more or less, Porsche’s home E Prix, and as such the team surely wanted to show up and show out in the best way possible. While the crested sports car brand didn’t bring home a victory, spending two races in points-paying positions is surely a slight salve for that pain. Team driver Andre Lotterer scored points in both races of the double-header, while Pascal Wehrlein took home points in Saturday’s race, but fell just shy on Sunday. With these results Porsche made some serious points gains on the Jaguar team, which sits just one point ahead in the teams’ championship. Lotterer sits in a solid seventh in the drivers’ championship with 59 points, and Wehrlein is right behind him in eighth with 51 points. Porsche really need more results like its one-two in Mexico if it wants to make any gains on the Mercedes, Venturi, or Techeetah teams.
Formula E Berlin E-Prix Round Seven
Lotterer started Saturday off with a fifth grid position, with teammate Wehrlein right behind in sixth. Lotterer looked very strong during this event, and held the lead of the race on two separate occasions. Ultimately his strategy wasn’t quite as good as the three cars which would finish ahead of him, and he fell just off the podium to fourth position. It looked like there was a potential for him to secure a third or even second position on the final lap as the two cars ahead of him fought for position, but they recovered well enough to stay just fractions of a second ahead of the German driver. Wehrlein, try as he might, just couldn’t make up any positions, and was forced to settle for sixth, right where he started the race.
Florian Modlinger, Director Factory Motorsport Formula E:“It’s wonderful to drive in Berlin with such a setting. The qualifying was very close, we’re talking about thousandths of a second for André. And the race treated fans to everything that makes Formula E so exciting. We were up there at all times today and scored 21 points, plus Pascal took the fastest race lap. We’ll now turn out attention to tomorrow’s second race and work hard at getting even further up the front.”
André Lotterer, Porsche works driver (#36): “We made the best of our opportunities today. Obviously, I’m disappointed that it wasn’t enough for a podium result, especially after having been among the leading pack over the whole distance. We’ve achieved a top level, we now just need to improve a little more, then an even better result is possible tomorrow.”
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche works driver (#94): “Apart from the duels, the qualifying was very promising. So the race was a little disappointing for me. It wasn’t easy, there was a great deal of strategy involved. Still, I took my first fastest race lap in Formula E. Hopefully we’ll be able to earn some more points in tomorrow’s race.”
Formula E Berlin E-Prix Round Eight
On Sunday the Porsche team was invigorated coming off a strong race and time in the lead on Saturday, but ultimately couldn’t turn it into much as far as results are concerned. Lotterer started the Sunday race from an even higher grid position, up in fourth, while Wehrlein had an uphill battle on his hands, starting in nineteenth! Lotterer ran much of the first half of the race in contention for a podium, keeping touch with the lead pack, and even making up some ground under Attack Mode conditions. In the second phase of the race, however, he simply lost touch with the frontrunners, and tumbled down the order, finishing in eighth. From the depths of the grid Wehrlein ran a flying race, running up as high as seventh at one stage, but couldn’t make his strategy pay off, ending the day in twelfth, just outside the points paying positions.
Florian Modlinger, Director Factory Motorsport Formula E:“Once again, André did very well in qualifying. He’s the only driver to have made it into the duels at all races so far this season. That’s a great achievement. Pascal, however, didn’t feel comfortable in the car and was unable to build sufficient grip. This prevented him from achieving a better lap time. But considering he started from P19, he drove a solid race. André started the race from fourth and initially matched the pace of the leading group, even in attack mode. But as the race progressed, he lost contact with his rivals. We’ll analyze this in detail when we return to Weissach. We have some homework ahead of us and we’ll work hard to do better in the next races.”
André Lotterer, Porsche works driver (#36):“After the semi-final in qualifying, I’d hoped for a little more, but the race was tough. The car’s balance wasn’t ideal and that affected the efficiency. Consequently, I dropped from fourth to eighth. Race 7 yesterday went well so we now have to look at the reason behind this. On the positive side, I earned points in both races. We have a good basis for the second half of the season.”
Pascal Wehrlein, Porsche works driver (#94): “The qualifying didn’t go well for me, unfortunately. I lacked grip and the balance was off. Still, our race speed was okay and I managed to make up seven places but I couldn’t do more from this position. It’s a shame because we could’ve definitely taken a few points home.
Porsche is definitely still a contender for wins as the current season winds past the half-season mark. There are just eight races left this season with three more double-headers. We’ll be cheering for them all the way.