Andretti driver Jake Dennis capitalized on an early mistake by Lucas di Grassi to take the lead in the Mexico City Prix and never looked back to start the 2023 Formula E season with victory.
Dennis’ win was the first in the new Gen3 car introduced for the 2023 season. Pascal Wehrlein finished second, seven seconds behind Dennis, while Di Grassi took the final spot on the podium in third.
In earlier qualifying, Mahindra’s Lucas di Grassi secured his pole position by defeating Andretti’s Jake Dennis in the final. As the lights went out, Di Grassi took the lead in turn, with McLaren driver Jake Hughes taking Dennis into second. Dennis led the opening round of the race and the championship, while Di Grassi held his position.
Robin Frigens seriously damaged his own car after entering Norman NATO before him. The safety car was deployed on the second lap as Frigens’ car was cleared, and Frigens was later diagnosed with a broken wrist in the collision. When the green flags flew at the start of lap six, Sam Bird immediately reported a drive failure on the Jaguar, leaving the circuit at the end of the pit exit. The safety car was then deployed a second time.
Di Grassi was leading from Dennis and Hughes as the race finally started for ten laps. As the field began lap 12, Di Grassi made a mistake in the first corner which allowed Dennis to pull away and take the lead into lap three. In the next lap, Dennis took the first attack mode and maintained the lead, Hughes took two minutes of attack mode, Di Grassi only took one minute of the first attack mode and all three remained in their original positions after their attack mode ended. .
On lap 18, the safety car was deployed for the third time and Edoardo Mortara spun his Maserati into the barrier at the first corner. As the race resumed on lap 21, with just 15 laps to go, Dennis was ahead of Di Grassi, with Hughes still in third place.
Hughes took his second attack mode, dropping third to Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche, before Wehrlein found another place as Di Grassi entered the stadium section on lap 29. Werlein moved into second, but Dennis was pulling a gap comfortably in front of him. More than four seconds ahead of the Porsche driver.
As the first scheduled final lap of the distance passed, the race control announced that five more laps would be added due to the number of laps under the safety car. With most of the field sitting at 15 percent power, energy savings will be crucial at the end of the race.
Di Grassi put pressure on Hughes for third place, with Andre Lotterer attacking the McLaren driver early. Dennis continued to grow his lead over Wihrlein at the front and managed to take the checkered flag with the rest of his lap. Wehrlein finished second, seven seconds behind, while Di Grassi took the final podium in third.
Lotterer passed Hughes on the penultimate lap to take fourth place, while Sébastien Buemi crossed the line sixth in the Envision. Antonio Félix da Costa was seventh ahead of Mitch Evans, with Nick Cassidy and Stoffel Vandoorne rounding out the top ten.
Results of the 2023 Mexico City Prix
PositionDriverTeam1Jake DennisAndretti2Pascal WehrleinPorsche3Lucas di GrassiMahindra4Andre LottererAndretti5Jake HughesMcLaren6Jean-Eric VergneDS Penske7Antonio Felix da CostaPorsche8Mitch EvansJaguar9Nick CassidyEnvision10Stoffel VandoorneDS Penske11Max GuntherMaserati12Sebastien BuemiEnvision13Oliver RowlandMahindra14Nico MullerAbt15Sacha FenestrazNissan16Sergio Sette CamaraNio17Dan TicktumNioRetNorman NatoNissanRetEdoardo MortaraMaseratiRetRobin FrijnsAbtRetRene RastMcLarenRetSam BirdJaguar
Advertisement | Become a RaceFans fan and
Formula E
Browse all Formula E articles
