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Max on a mission
One man found himself at the top of every timed session over the weekend: Maserati MSG Racing's Maximilian Guenther. The German driver found an instant rapport with the circuit and dominated timed sessions like Free Practice and qualifying.
Guenther also finally achieved his first Julius Baer Pole Position on Saturday's race, an accolade that had been 60 races in the making for the 25-year-old. Delighted with the title of pole sitter, Guenther was on a roll and managed to secure pole for the following race too. Clearly at one with the circuit, his reign of the weekend was also rewarded with a race win on Sunday - becoming the only driver to win from pole in the past 14 races.
Making history for Maserati
When Maserati decided to make their motorsport comeback with Formula E for Season 9, there were headlines everywhere. The iconic manufacturer has a rich racing history, attracting some of the biggest names when it competed in Formula 1 several decades ago. Their absence in single-seater championships was no more when they joined Formula E for the new GEN3 era, with the team transitioning from Venturi to Maserati MSG Racing for this season.
Guenther already ended their wait for a single-seater podium in motorsport when he achieved third in Berlin. Still, his victory this weekend makes it Maserati's first world championship single-seater win since Juan-Manuel Fangio's legendary win at the Nurburgring in 1957.
Challenging championship weekend for Cassidy
Envision Racing's Nick Cassidy arrived into the Jakarta weekend with the championship lead and back-to-back victories in Berlin and Monaco. Life seemed to be good. However, things unravelled themselves over Rounds 10 and 11, and now he's slipped to third in the standings, albeit six points behind TAG Heuer Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein, who returns to the top stop.
Cassidy picked up just seven points over the double header in Indonesia, finishing seventh with the fastest lap in race one and 18th with no points the following day. He got in a tangle with Jean-Eric Vergne (DS PENSKE) on Saturday and failed to pull off a lunge on championship rival Wehrlein, which ended up with him going into the barrier. He was able to get going again with some damage to his front wing but had to settle for finishing at the back of the grid.
"It wasn't an ideal day," Cassidy said about Round 11. "They happen in racing, and it was bound to happen sometime this season. We did a really good job overnight analysing where we were weak. Every session, I was getting stronger, and qualifying ended up quick. Then I made a mistake in qualifying, and it just proved too costly, putting me in the jungle, let's say.
"I started to come through, and I had a lot of energy. Pace wasn't that special, it was good, but it was probably behind Max [Guenther] and Jake [Dennis, Avalanche Andretti], and I just needed to make something work for me. I messed up."
Nissan's best result in the new Formula E Era
It was certainly a weekend to celebrate for the Nissan Formula E Team. Both their drivers, Sacha Fenestraz and Norman Nato, managed to finish within the top five in Sunday's E-Prix - their best result of the new GEN3 era.
Although the first race of the double header didn't deliver any huge results for the team, picking up no championship points, their fate changed the following day when the duo battled intense heat but still managed to keep their cool in their race cars.
Fenestraz made it through to the Duels, finishing in second at the end of his group session. Starting the Gulavit Jakarta E-Prix seventh in race two, he climbed up to fourth by the end of the first lap. From there, he and the team managed their strategy and energy management perfectly, and the French-Argentinian would cross the finish line fourth, just missing out on a podium in his rookie season.
Nato started in 12th but fought up the field, using ATTACK MODE to complete several passes. Thanks to his skill and the Nissan car's performance, Nato would reach the chequered flag in fifth, just behind his teammate. Between their drivers, Nissan picked up 22 points which is their best result this year.
Back to winning ways for Wehrlein
After such a solid start to the season, with a second place in Mexico City and two consecutive wins in Diriyah, you would be forgiven for expecting Pascal Wehrlein and Porsche to have the championship in the bag. But that wouldn't be in Formula E style, would it?
Instead, Wehrlein failed to find himself on the podium again after Round 3 and even lost his lead in the championship standings when we left Monaco. Some questioned if the championship was slowly slipping from his grasp, but the German silenced his doubters in race one of Jakarta as he stood on the top step of the podium once again.
Starting third, Wehrlein passed both pole sitter Guenther and Dennis by lap four, who started on the front row, to achieve his fourth career win in the all-electric championship. However, one man wasn't happy with the Porsche driver's move.
"The manoeuvre with Pascal was ridiculous," Andretti's Jake Dennis said after the race. "I had to hit so much pressure to avoid hitting the back of him. I don't know how he got away with that. The other two guys did it perfectly. They left just enough space for one car, which is the rule."
Andretti uses the Porsche powertrains in their GEN3 machines, something Dennis referenced when the move wasn't challenged: "We can't protest against them because they have a Porsche powertrain."
His victory and sixth-place finish this weekend means Wehrlein is back leading the championship, just one point shy of Dennis, who is in second.
Doing the double for Dennis
Jake Dennis managed his fourth consecutive podium result in Round 11 after finishing second in both Jakarta races over the double header. Now just a single championship point behind Wehrlein, the Brit is definitely a strong title contender for Season 9.
Despite his blip of non-scoring results mid-season, Dennis has managed to turn his season's storyline around and, after his win at the first race in Mexico City, has picked up an impressive seven podiums so far in his GEN3 campaign.