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Sometimes in Formula E, patience trumps everything else. Especially in the season finale, which have a unique vibe as some drivers are fighting for big prizes and others are either looking to save their drives or impress potential new employers.
It can make for fraught races in which it is easy to get sucked into crashes or trip up over other drivers’ errors. Mortara’s rise up the order in the penultimate race of the season is a good example of avoiding exactly this.
If you judged Mortara’s race on data alone, ignoring all context, you could be tricked into thinking it was a textbook ‘alternative’ Formula E recovery: spend energy early, rise up the order, and then hold position. After all, he charged from a lowly grid position into the top 10 across the first few laps and stayed there until the end.
Most of that progress came through keeping his nose clean although it did require an energy spend as well. Leaping from 14th to seventh in two laps was aided by six cars being moved out of his way across two incidents in quick succession. But he also had cars around him in ATTACK MODE and that seemed to require Mortara to up his own pace with a different strategy, arming himself with that extra power later on.
Matching the speed of those around him came at a clear energy cost as Mortara ran lower than the majority from an early stage of this race, as his battery use exceeded that of the others in the top 10. But crucially, he was able to hold position by taking this approach. And then he adjusted his speed, and by extension his energy usage, to something more moderate and consistent.
His focus became maintaining position while trying to eke back a bit of that battery deficit, which he did well enough to stabilise his situation.
This paid dividends later on as Mortara locked down a top 10 place following his ATTACK MODE activation, and had enough energy to be able to hold off those behind and even pressure the cars in front. He was then well placed to pick up a few more positions through further misfortune for rivals to finish an unlikely fifth.
Buemi had some similar fortune in terms of clashes, although not immediately. A first-lap collision did take out two cars – but, despite Buemi being 17th, that happened to involve two of the only drivers who started behind him! A few laps later, though, a three-car clash helped him into 13th, and an unusual bit of damage to Jehan Daruvala’s car forced him to pit and moved Buemi to 12th.
Unlike Mortara, this came without an energy loss compared to the rest of the field, so Buemi moved to the fringes of the points at no cost. Then he waited longer to start using ATTACK MODE and gradually picked off more cars while holding a competitive enough battery state of charge.
He was spending more than some in front, but not a drastic amount, and crucially he was moving forward as he did this – the mark of calculated overtakes and efficiently taking advantage of opportunities as they arose, to make sure that energy spend was worthwhile.
Late drama in the championship fight further assisted Buemi’s rise as title contender Nick Cassidy was taken out of the race after two hits, the latter of which broke Max Guenther’s front wing – a chaotic situation in which Buemi also slickly picked off Jean-Eric Vergne as well to take three places in quick succession.
A late move on Antonio Felix da Costa moved him into fourth and such was his good mix of speed and energy management that he almost stole a podium from the limping Mitch Evans on the final lap.
The final standings
Master of making a move stick in Season 10, Nissan's Oliver Rowland, is your ABB Driver of Progress winner for the campaign - and the Yorkshireman signed off in style in London with a maiden race win on home soil. He'd never scored points in London before, but he was able to clamber from ninth on the grid to the top step of the podium, beyond the three title contenders who were battling it out all race, for top honours.
READ MORE: Rowland on a job well done in Season 10
Some was to sign off and the ultimate reward for a driver that's proven adept at scything his way through the field in Season 10 as GEN3's style of racing matured.
