Nissan’s Formula E Team showed strong potential in the opening race of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship thanks to Sacha Fenestraz’s excellent qualifying display in Mexico City.
The Franco-Argentine racer put in a good performance in the Group Stage of qualifying to progress to the Duels, narrowly missing out on a semi-final berth.
Starting eighth, Fenestraz gained a position on the opening lap with an excellent move, and ran as high as sixth, proving his ability in his first race for the team.
In a tightly contested race, the 23-year-old continued to set a good pace, before a system issue regarding energy management saw him drop out of the top-10 during the closing stages.
Norman Nato also had a positive start in the #17 car, but was caught up in an incident and forced to retire during the first lap.
Great potential
“It’s a little bit frustrating because we could see that the car was strong,” said Tommaso Volpe, general manager of Nissan Formula E and managing director of Nissan’s Formula E Team.
“Sacha did an amazing job in qualifying to reach the duels. He showed great potential and almost made it into the semi-finals. In the race he was running well and putting in good lap times before an energy management issue at the end of the race.
“His performance deserved points, so we are obviously disappointed, but we have to move on to the next event and look for better there.
“We know we have factors to improve on but it’s good to see that we are starting from a strong base, so we will analyse what happened today and build towards stronger results in Diriyah.”
Season 9 of Formula E returns at the end of the month, with the double-header in Diriyah taking place on January 27-28.