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Mexico City once again proved a fantastic start to the season, with TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein converting his Julius Baer Pole Position into a fifth win of the all-electric championship. The German has always had good fortune here, now leaving Mexico with four poles here (three in Mexico City and one in Puebla) as well as two wins for Porsche.
Discussing his magical Mexican performance, Wehrlein stressed how important it was to have started from the front of the grid – something Porsche have been desperately working on over the off-season.
RACE REPORT: Pascal Wehrlein converts pole to Round 1 win in Mexico City E-Prix
“A pretty good day with pole position and the race win,” Pascal began. “Our focus in the off- season was especially in qualifying as that was one of our weaknesses in the last half last season.. I hope we did a good step forward. Let's see if it's just Mexico City, or if we can confirm that in the next couple of events.
“Nevertheless, I was really happy about the pole position, probably as happy as I was about the race win to be honest! The race was not an easy one. It probably looked easier than it was because I was leading almost the whole race and could save a lot of energy - just always a little bit to increase my targets”
Wehrlein and Porsche opted for a different strategy than their rivals, with the race-winner taking both his ATTACK MODES in quick succession early on in the E-Prix. However, a gap from him to Sebastien Buemi (Envision Racing) soon appeared after the Season 2 champ made an error when hunting down Pascal.
RECAP: Key moments from the 2024 Hankook Mexico City E-Prix
“I saw Buemi make a mistake behind me which put him out of the slipstream, and from there the race was a bit easier,” he continued after the race. “A very good day. Thanks to my team all the hard work and we need to keep pushing.”
Talking of pushing, Wehrlein also added that each trip around the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez felt like a qualifying lap and trying to maximise the corner speeds.
“This track is one where it's not so easy to overtake. Yes, you can overtake but you're already more flat out then on some other tracks. I quite like the mix. Tracks like Berlin or Portland can be messy at the start of a race until the pace picks up. It’s good that we have a couple of other races where qualifying matters and where we really want to start in the top five.”
The Porsche driver now makes it two victories in Mexico City, after attaining the German giants’ first win in Formula E in 2020.
“I definitely had a good feeling and already during testing at the end of last season, it was clear that we made some steps forward,” he finalised. “But obviously Mexico is somehow always a special track for us. That's why I'm a bit cautious! But hopefully we can confirm that performance in qualifying and also on other tracks.”
At the time of publication, Wehrlein is under investigation for a technical infringement. To see the results of this investigation, be sure to keep an eye on the Formula E website.