Portuguese pilot experiences a “nightmare” in the qualifying round for round 3 of the 2024 World Championship, the second of the Saudi stage on the electric single-seater championship calendar. ePrix at 17.00 hours in mainland Portugal
António Félix da Costa is having a very bad start to Season 10 in the Formula E World Championship. The Portuguese Porsche driver, after retiring from the opening race of the championship in Mexico City following a collision with Swiss driver Nico Müller’s ABT Cupra, could only manage 16th place in the second round of the season held yesterday in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Today, he qualified last for the second ePrix on the 2024 World Championship program at the Riyadh Street Circuit, which is scheduled to start at 17.04 hours in mainland Portugal.
Félix da Costa was in Group A in the first phase of qualifying and finished 11th out of 11 drivers, 1.021s behind the fastest in the series, Franco-Argentinian Sacha Fenestraz of Nissan. This very modest result, considering both the driver’s and the Porsche 9XX Electric’s credentials, immediately placed him on the last row of the starting grid for the 36-lap race under artificial light on the 2.495km, 21-turn street circuit in the suburbs of the Saudi capital. The Portuguese driver complains about the car’s behavior, a fact that disturbs his confidence and consequently reduces his concentration and speed…
This fact confirms the existence of problems: yesterday’s winner, British driver Jake Dennis of Andretti, the team that also races with the Porsche 9XX Electric, failed to advance to the group stage of qualifying and only managed 15th place on the starting grid, while Félix da Costa’s teammate and current championship leader, German driver Pascal Wehrlein, only secured 10th place.
Oliver Rowland, who left Mahindra halfway through the 2023 season due to dissatisfaction with the Indian team’s results, returned to Nissan this year and, in the third qualifying session with the eFORCE 04, outperformed the competition in the qualifying session, defeating Dutch driver Robin Frijns (Envision) in the final by 0.274s. The 31-year-old British driver achieved his 6th pole position in Formula E, but his first since Seoul 2022. The Japanese team had not celebrated a similar result since Cape Town 2023 (when they achieved it with Fenestraz), an ePrix won by Félix da Costa.
