Challenging introduction for the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team to the Autodromo Miguel E. Abed: Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries battle through to 7th and 9th place respectively

• Nyck and Stoffel were assigned to the first qualifying group. Both got caught up in traffic on their lap, provisionally qualifying 16th and 23rd respectively. Grid penalties imposed on other drivers then promoted them to P14 and P21.
• Stoffel improved by 14 positions over the course of the 28-lap Puebla E-Prix to eventually finish seventh.
• Nyck had the Top Ten in his sights until just before the middle of the race when he came into contact with an opponent and fell far back down the field. He then clawed his way back into contention and finished the race in P9.
• After the eighth race of the season, the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team (113 points) occupies the top spot in the team championship, with a six-point lead over Jaguar Racing (107 points).
• The ninth round of the season of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will be contested tomorrow, Sunday (start time 16:04 local / 22:04 BST), also in Puebla.

Ian James, Team Principal:

“It was a challenging day from the start. The team had to get to grips with the track under tricky conditions, and these conditions changed in every session. Nyck and Stoffel both started the race from an extremely difficult position after a messy qualifying, in which setting a clean lap was near impossible. They managed to accept that result and approach the race as a new opportunity to deliver.

And never giving up once again turned out to be the right mentality. As ever, I’m impressed by the determination of this team. At no point did anyone give up hope on a better result in the race, whether in the garage, or out on track. P7 and P9 deliver a few important points, although we still have the feeling that there were more to be had. Nyck even saw an incident set him back again during the race. So, standing here after having clinched 8 points in the fight for the championship is a small consolation.

Now, having said that, I’m happy we can go again tomorrow, and aim for a better result.

Lastly, congratulations to Audi on their result today, and, of course, to our customer team Venturi, on a fantastic podium.”

Stoffel Vandoorne:

“P7 from P21 – I would say that’s quite a good result considering what happened in qualifying. It’s great to be scoring points from that sort of position. We had a good strategy, and we were fast when it mattered. We burned some energy when we had to as well, and in the end, it was just a case of surviving and bringing the car home. I think the pace of the car has been pretty good the whole weekend so far, and we’ve got another chance tomorrow. After P7 today, we can hopefully have a good result tomorrow if we start a bit higher up the grid.”

Nyck de Vries:

“Taking everything into account, I am satisfied with today. I think we showed great pace, we stayed calm, and we bounced back after taking a big hit in a very promising position. In hindsight, of course, we can speculate about what might have been if that hadn’t happened. I think a much higher classification would have been a realistic prospect, but unfortunately that’s what happened and it’s all part of racing. There’s nothing we could have done about it. Anyway, we stayed cool, we adapted the strategy and we got the safety car, which meant we could use our pace to come back and score a couple of points. For the team, I think it was a good day. I was satisfied with the way we did our job and with our package, so hopefully we’ll have a better day tomorrow, but overall I am still quite positive about the final result and the way we managed to bounce back.”

Round 9 – Puebla E-Prix

When to watch

The team is back on track for round nine of the season of the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship tomorrow, Sunday (start time 22:04 BST, 16:04 local time). Tune in at the following times to see the team in action:

Where to watch
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