Mahindra Racing driver Felix Rosenqvist was elated with his maiden podium at the inaugural Marrakesh ePrix, but also outlined how much he learnt after seeing an opportunity to claim his maiden victory in the series slip away in the latter laps of the race.
Rosenqvist was on it all day in Morocco, finishing second in practice two he repeated that feat in qualifying, then sealed his and Mahindra Racing’s first pole position in the all-electric series in Super Pole. To demonstrate how good of a day Rosenqvist had, his teammate Nick Heidfeld spent most his day lurking in the midfield and finished the race in ninth.
“I’m really excited to be racing at this level so early on in Formula E. I certainly didn’t expect to be on pole position here, and I think that effort really proves how hard we’ve been working over the last few months to really prepare ourselves for this season. It’s quite an honour to give the team their first-ever pole. I made a good start in the race, and – even though we were in with a chance of winning – I’m thrilled with this podium. It really gives us a solid platform on which to build over the rest of the season,” said an elated Rosenqvist.
Leading for all but one lap before championship leader Sebastien Buemi passed him whilst he was conserving energy due to his early stop compared to the majority of the field, he lost the lead and was a sitting duck for Sam Bird, but a lengthy gap to Nico Prost enabled him to maintain third position and claim his maiden podium.
Discussing the latter stages of the race, Rosenqvist said: “I couldn’t complete a traditional-style race in Hong Kong, so I went here not really knowing too much about energy conservation in race mode. I learned an awful lot about it today. Formula E races are very specific and require a lot of tactics, so I will continue to fine-tune that. In the end Buemi and Bird had another strategy and were able to get ahead, so we need to sit down and analyse what we could potentially have done better. That said, I’m obviously elated with how things went today, and I want to thank everyone at Mahindra Racing for a top job.”
