It was time for another Formula E Double Header, this time around the newly modified Tempelhof Circuit in Berlin!
Winner: Nick Cassidy
There’s no better person to start with for this weekend than Nick Cassidy. Nick Cassidy dropped to the back in the first Race, only to eventually come back through and take victory before Nick followed it up by finishing second in today’s E-Prix! That’s pretty impressive going from Cassidy, and the Kiwi now leads the Formula E World Championship by 16 points heading into Shanghai (which takes place in two weeks)!
Loser: Maximilian Gunther
This weekend did not go to plan at all for Maximilian Gunther! Max Gunther showed really good pace in both Qualifying Sessions to make it into the Duels, but the Races were a different story as Gunther found the wall in an incident with Jake Hughes on Saturday before he crashed out in today’s E-Prix after running into the back of Norman Nato’s Andretti (I believe). So yeah, no points for Max Gunther this weekend, and he’s now a long way behind the Championship pack!
Winners: Taylor Barnard and Jehan Daruvala
Props to both Taylor Barnard and Jehan Daruvala for scoring good points this weekend! Firstly, Taylor managed to finish in the points on both Saturday and Sunday, finishing 10th yesterday and now 8th today which is very impressive for what was really his first “proper weekend” in Formula E. As for Jehan, it didn’t exactly go to plan yesterday as the Maserati MSG driver did get caught up in a couple of incidents, but today went much better for Daruvala as he was able to cross the line in a great P7 (which was arguably the “Best of the Rest”). So yeah, well done to the two Rookies!
Losers: Andretti
Yeah, there’s simply no way of really getting around this! Round 9 was horrendous for Andretti, with Jake Dennis and Norman Nato being slowest in their respective Qualifying Groups whilst in the Race, both Nato and Dennis suffered punctures as a result of contact with their rivals. This was particularly tough for Jake to take as he probably would’ve ended up pulling out maybe the best win I’ve ever seen in Formula E?! Anyway, Qualifying went the opposite way for Andretti in Round 10 as Dennis took Pole whilst Nato finished third, but in the Race, Norman stupidly wiped out Sacha Fenestraz to once again score 0 points whilst the Reigning World Champion ended up getting shuffled down to 5th after multiple incidents with the likes of Oliver Rowland and Pascal Wehrlein. So yeah, 13 points for Andretti is very disappointing, especially on a Double Header Weekend!
Winner: Oliver Rowland
Oliver Rowland is making a really case for him to named the new “Mr. Consistency”! Ollie Rowland had terrible Qualifying’s on both Saturday and Sunday, yet he somehow managed to finish third in both E-Prix’s! Like, that’s absolutely mad, but it’s a credit to how well Oliver’s driving that he keeps putting himself in these positions. There’s a very fair and valid argument to be made that Rowland overdoes it with his driving sometimes, but that’s not up to him to sort out, so I can’t exactly downgrade his efforts!
Winner and Loser: Edoardo Mortara
I think Edoardo Mortara is definitely the driver that fits the best in the “Winner and Loser” category. Edo Mortara got Pole yesterday, bringing Mahindra their first points of the entire season, and he followed it up by finishing P8 which is pretty good all things considered! However, today was a different story as after another decent Quali which saw Edo make the duels, Mortara was a bit too aggressive during the Race and it ultimately saw him drop back to P16 (with damage). So whilst Edo Mortara can be delighted with 7 points from this weekend, I can’t help but feel like he maybe should’ve gotten more!
Winner: Antonio Felix da Costa
And finally, let’s talk about Antonio Felix da Costa! Antonio Felix da Costa had a good Round 9, coming home in P6, but the main talking point is the fact that da Costa managed to avoid all the carnage behind to take a very mature Berlin E-Prix victory today! As much as Antonio’s teammate is the one in the Championship fight, you can’t forget that da Costa is a former Champion and he also won the Title in Berlin (back in 2020) so he knows how to excel around the Tempelhof!