Nissan e.dams achieved a double top 10 finish at the Mexico City E-Prix, which made for an intense and thrilling Round 3 of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
The long-awaited return to the vibrant Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and its legendary Foro Sol saw an action-packed day of wheel-to-wheel racing in front of colourful, cheering crowds, providing some of the most spectacular views on the racing calendar.
The Nissan e.dams drivers had a promising start to the day with Sébastien Buemi finishing FP1 in P2 and Maximilian Günther in P6. Buemi was then fourth fastest in FP2, demonstrating an improved performance of the Nissan Gen2 Formula E powertrain since the first two rounds in Diriyah.
While the pace was quick in the practice sessions, a couple of mistakes compromised the team’s qualifying. Both drivers failed to make it through to the duels, resulting in Günther starting the race from P10 and Buemi from P18.
As the lights went out in Mexico City, Günther and Buemi fought hard against the competition in the #22 LEAF and #23 ARIYA race cars. Günther held onto P10 while Buemi made up five places on the first lap.
The thrilling race saw multiple changes of positions across the whole field but was ultimately decided on the very last lap. Both Nissan e.dams drivers benefitted from the team’s energy management strategy, which allowed them to keep up the pace for the one extra lap that other competitors did not anticipate.
In a dramatic finish, Buemi took the chequered flag in P8 – an impressive 10 places up from his starting position – and Günther in P9, scoring the team’s first points of the season and Günther’s first ever points for Nissan e.dams.
“It has been a better weekend for us compared to Diriyah, both in terms of pace and winning our first points in Season 8,” said Tommaso Volpe, general manager Nissan Formula E. “We’ve demonstrated that we have good pace today, which proves that we did the right work in preparation for the race. We hoped for a better qualifying session but the race result was good, and it is a great feeling to have a double top 10 finish here in Mexico in front of thousands of passionate motorsport fans.
“Mexico is always a very special race for us. Nissan has been in the country for over 60 years now, and we’ve been the best-selling car brand here for 12 consecutive years. We have a very long history and a great deal of know-how in electrification, and Formula E provides the perfect platform for us to tell our story and accelerate the development of our EV technology. We’re thrilled to show our fans and customers that the future is electric, and that it is a very exciting one.”
Nissan e.dams co-team principals Grégory and Olivier Driot also commented: “We expected more following the pace we had in the practice sessions, but we didn’t deliver what we could have in qualifying. However, what is important is how we recovered – we focused well on energy management and quickly understood that we had to switch our strategy from 39 to 40 laps, while some teams took longer to react. We were aiming for more, but we are happy to bring home our first points of the season.”
The team will now look ahead to the upcoming Formula E double-header in Rome on 09 and 10 April 2022.
Nissan races in Formula E to bring the excitement and fun of zero-emission electric vehicles to a global audience. As part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations and the life cycle of its products by 2050, Nissan intends to electrify all its new vehicles by the early 2030s in key markets. The Japanese automaker aims to bring its expertise in transferring knowledge and technology between the racetrack and road for better electric vehicles for customers.