António Félix da Costa did not meet the objective of qualifying well for the Mexico City ePrix, the opening round of Season 10 of the Formula E World Championship. The Porsche driver finished only 8th in Group B of the session, failing to advance to the group stage (quarterfinals, semifinals, and final) that awards the pole position and determines the first four rows of the starting grid. And so, at the start of the race with 35 laps on the 2.628 km circuit and nineteen turns at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, scheduled to begin at 8:04 pm in Continental Portugal, the Portuguese driver is in 16th position, with over 40,000 fans in the stands, including about 25,000 in the Foro Sol.
Formula E visits the Mexican capital for the eighth time. Félix da Costa has two second places at the Hermanos Rodríguez, achieved consecutively in 2019 and 2020, the first with BMW-Andretti, the second with DS Techeetah. Last year, in his debut race for Porsche, the 32-year-old driver also failed to advance to the group stage, but had a better qualifying position, starting in 9th on the grid. Then, in the race, which had more laps (41) than planned due to Safety Car interventions, the Portuguese driver gained positions, finishing 7th.
The reigning world champion (and winner of the Mexico City ePrix in 2023), British driver Jake Dennis of Andretti, the team that uses the Porsche 9XX Electric, also had a modest qualifying session, finishing just ahead of Félix da Costa in Group B. Moments ago, German driver Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) and Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi (Envision) faced off in the final session, with the former prevailing over the latter by 0.251 seconds, completing the lap in 1’13″298. It is the fourth pole position in the career of Félix da Costa’s teammate, but the first since Mexico City-2022.
