Great Britain and Nissan's Oliver Rowland took victory in Mexico City for the first time in his Formula E career, on Saturday afternoon in the Mexican capital.

The Nissan driver maximised fortune with the second attack mode and took the lead in between two short safety car periods, which were for David Beckmann and Mitch Evans respectively. Due to his DNF, Evans has lost the championship lead tat he came into the round with after winning in Sao Paulo.

Rowland took the victory ahead of the two Porsche drivers, who secured Porsche's first double podium in the Gen3 Formula E era. It would be Antonio Felix Da Costa who took second ahead of pole sitter Pascal Wehrlein, who had to settle for third. 

Da Costa now takes the championship lead into round three and four next time out in Jeddah and the Portuguese driver has taken two second place finishes in 2024/25.

Formula E had descended on Mexico City this weekend, more specifically the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, for round two of the 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

It had been a busy day previously with the second free practice session and qualifying session taking place in the morning of Saturday in Mexico City. The qualifying had been the most recent session ahead of the E-Prix and set the grid for the race start.

It would be Pascal Wehrlein who would take pole position for the second successive time in Mexico City and in doing so would make it back to back pole positions. This would follow on from him taking pole back in the opening round in Sao Paulo - in December.

Wehrlein would beat his Porsche teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa in the duels final to claim the position of starting the race from the front of the field. Wehrlein would be looking to convert pole into victory, which had not happened at all in Formula E since Wehrlein did it in Mexico in the 2023/24 season.

It would be a Porsche front lock out in Mexico, with Jean-Eric Vergne starting third with Oliver Rowland in fourth. Both drivers made it to the semi finals of the duels but would make it no further and would have to settle for a second row start.

Championship leader Mitch Evans would start from fifth, whereas an exclusion from Group B in qualifying saw his Jaguar teammate Nick Cassidy set to start 22nd. Sebastian Buemi would also be excluded from qualifying in group A and would start 21st.

Jake Hughes of Maserati would take a grid penalty for impeding Robin Frijns of three places and that would increase the difficulty of his task on the grid.

It would be the time for the start of the race as the starting formalities had been completed for 36 laps of racing. 

The lights would go out and a good start for both Porsche cars saw them maintain first and second with Wehrlein leading from Da Costa. The top four would complete the opening lap in the same order they started before Rowland moved up into third at the very start of lap 2.

Jake Dennis would move up to fifth on the opening lap, which would have been a great start for him with championship leader Mitch Evans dropping down to seventh. 

The two Porsche drivers would be maintaining the top two spots early on but Rowland would be piling the pressure on Da Costa. 

Contact on the opening lap would see Dan Ticktum go into a spin in the stadium section. Ticktum would be tagged round in the stadium section by the Maserati of Jake Hughes and this would relegate Ticktum to the back of the field. Ticktum would pit and rejoin the race but would be a distance behind the rest of the field.

Lap three would see the first attack mode usage and it would be Taylor Barnard in 15th who would bolt first and he would be hoping to make progress after a difficult qualifying earlier on in the day.

It would be lap five before any other drivers made the move for attack mode as Sam Bird and David Beckmann were the drivers to take to the attack mode. 

Bird would be in the action as he was involved in a tight fight with the two Mahindra drivers with contact between he and Nyck De Vries, as the Dutchman made his way through ahead of the McLaren.

Bird also made contact with the other Mahindra of Edoardo Mortara and that incident would be put under investigation by the stewards

Barnard, who passed Bird, let his teammate back through easily after overtaking, due to Bird's mass amount of overtake and the young driver not wanting to hold his more experienced teammate up.

After doing this, Barnard would be passed by Beckmann and this would eave Barnard offset to the Maserati of Stoffel Vandoorne, who also found his way past.

De Vries and Andretti's Nico Mueller would also go for the attack mode and on lap 11 the two drivers would find their way ahead of Bird, after Bird was offset by De Vries' move. Muller however was showing great pace and was making use of the advantage.

By the end of lap 12, Mueller would make his way up to sixth to maximise the attack mode, to elevate himself up a position. He caught up to Jake Dennis and allowed his Andretti teammate to take his attack mode.

Soon enough on lap 14, Wehrlein would take the opportunity to get attack mode as would Vergne. Wehrlein would be assisted by his Porsche teammate Da Costa in to keep track position. However, Da Costa had offset himself and was swamped by Dennis, Vergne and Rowland and would be down to fifth.

Dennis was making use of his first attack mode brilliantly and he had caught up to Wehrlein after passing Vergne and Rowland to make his way up into second. Into the stadium section and it was sublime from Dennis as he made his way through to take the lead from seventh on the grid.

Da Costa would then take the attack mode as would Gunther but it would be Da Costa who would make the most of it as he would fire himself through to take the lead with a stunning pass to overtake the Andretti of Dennis.

At the other end of th Andretti garage, Mueller would take his second attack mode early on would be pursuing the front runners to try and support his teammate Dennis up front to help Andretti and play the team game. Mueller would take third from Wehrlein who would take to attack mode for the second time.

Wehrlein would pick up his second attack mode and he would sit in fourth ahead of Jaguar's Mitch Evans who would elevate himself back into the top five following his first attack mode of the race.

Lap 22 and Dennis would regain the lead as he also on his second attack mode would take the lead from Da Costa with all the top three on attack mode this would be about to get really tense.

Da Costa would find his way by with a superior amount of attack mode in comparison to Dennis and soon enough another lap later and it would be a Porsche 1-2 with Wehrlein in second place and Da Costa in the lead.

Bird's incident with Mortara had not gone well with the stewards and he would receive a five-second time penalty for his troubles. On lap 26, he would have his second attack mode and in the middle of train headed by Stoffel Vandoorne in ninth.

Drama on lap 28 as David Beckmann made contact with Lucas Di Grassi and it would be the end of the race and the safety car would be deployed which would have re-grouped the back together again. 

A couple of laps would go by and the safety car would be in at the end of the lap. Rowland with attack mode left from his intake of attack mode before the safety car had 90 seconds remaining. 

The green flag would be flying and immediately Rowland was on the move and would get by Dennis into the first corner. Soon enough it would be the turn of Wehrlein to eb overtaken and then brilliantly it would be Da Costa.

Just as Rowland had taken the race lead from Da Costa, the safety car would be brought back out again for this time championship leader Mitch Evans who collided with Nico Mueller on the restart and he would be out of the race.

A short stoppage under the safety car and all of a sudden, the race would be back underway with Rowland in the lead and there would be no added laps at the end of the race in what was set to be a dramatic sprint to the finish.

Rowland would have limited energy but would make it work and would hold off the two Porsche drivers to take his first ever win in Mexico City as he won the 2024/25 Mexioc City E-Prix from fourth on the grid.

To conclude a fantastic race Rowland would take the win ahead of Da Costa and Wehrlein who would complete the podium finishers. With that second place finish, Da Costa now takes over the lead of the drivers championship. 

Jake Dennis who led the race at moments had to settle for fourth while Jean-Eric Vergne completed the top five. Maximilian Gunther finished sixth just behind his DS Penske teammate ahead of Maserati's Stoffel Vandoorne in seventh.

Nyck De Vries of Mahindra finished eighth ahead of Andretti's Nico Mueller with Taylor Barnard completing the top 10 for NEOM McLaren and taking the fastest lap of the race late on.

1. Oliver Rowland (Great Britain, Nissan)
2. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Portugal, Porsche)
3. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany, Porsche)
4. Jake Dennis (Great Britain, Andretti)
5. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, DS Penske)
6. Maximilian Gunther (Germany, DS Penske)
7. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, Maserati)
8. Nyck De Vries (Netherlands, Mahindra Racing)
9. Nico Mueller (Switzerland, Andretti)
10. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
11. Jake Hughes (Great Britain, Maserati)
12. Robin Frijns (Netherlands, Envision Racing)
13. Sebastian Buemi (Switzerland, Envision Racing)
14. Nick Cassidy (New Zealand, Jaguar)
15. Norman Nato (France, Nissan)
16. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil, ABT Lola Cars)
17. Edoardo Mortara (Switzerland, Mahindra Racing)
18. Zane Maloney (Barbados, ABT Lola Cars)
19. Dan Ticktum (Great Britain, Cupra Kiro)
20. Sam Bird (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)

DNF. Mitch Evans (New Zealand, Jaguar)
DNF. David Beckmann (Germany, Cupra Kiro) 

Brandon Whiteside
​Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

Reigning Formula E champion Pascal Wehrlein makes it back to back pole positions in the championship, as on Saturday he took pole position for the Mexico City E-Prix.

It is the second successive season that Wehrlein has taken pole position for the Mexico City E-Prix. Last year, he took victory on route to the championship crown. Could he do the same in the 2024/25 campaign? That would be a matter for the day's later E-Prix to decide.

Wehrlein took pole in the 1v1 knockout duels final by just over a tenth of a second after he beat his Porsche teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa in the final. Both progressed to the final after beating Nissan's Oliver Rowland and DS Penske's Jean-Eric Vergne respectively.

Championship leader Mitch Evans was eliminated in the quarter finals after progressing through the group stages. He was beaten by Oliver Rowland.

Action would return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit for Formula E on E-Prix race day Saturday in Mexico City, for round 2 of the 2024/25 championship with qualifying set to take centre stage.

The duels qualifying which is well associated with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship for its uniqueness. The 22-driver grid would be split into two groups of 11 and those drivers fight it out in their respective groups for the top four spots.

The top four drivers of each group would individually match up to form four quarter finals in a knockout-type format. The fastest driver in each driver will progress to the two semi finals, where the top of each semi final would progress to the final. The final will be between two drivers, with the fastest drivers taking pole position.

Practice had been very busy earlier on in the weekend with Antonio Felix Da Costa topping Friday's free practice 1 with Jake Hughes topping the day's earlier free practice 2.

The qualifying in Mexico City would begin with Group A and the first 11 drivers would head out onto the circuit. The drivers participating in Group A would be: 

• Lucas Di Grassi and Zane Maloney (ABT Lola Cars)
• Mitch Evans (Jaguar)
• Taylor Barnard (NEOM McLaren)
• Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra Racing)
• Sebastian Buemi (Switzerland, Envision Racing)
• Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
• Stoffel Vandoorne (Maserati)
• Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
• David Beckmann (Kiro Race) 
• Nico Mueller (Andretti)

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and the session would be underway to signify the start of qualifying in Mexico City with all 11 drivers heading out immediately to get to grips with a developing circuit, as it was damp for the day's earlier free practice 2.

As the drivers began to set their lap times the track was continuing to develop and in the first half of the session, Mahindra's Edorardo Mortara was fastest with Zane Maloney and Lucas Di Grassi sitting themselves in the top four along with Taylor Barnard as Group A reached the halfway point of the session.

The times were beginning to tumble rapidly as the session entered the final four minutes as Mitch Evans would go to the top of the time sheet. The Jaguar racer was having a much nicer qualifying than his qualifying in Sao Paulo where he stopped on track with a mechanical problem.

Nissan's Oliver Rowland would be the next to go fastest with a 1:15.702. He would soon be dislodged by Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Mueller  as it would be the Porsche of Wehrlein who would be fastest by half a second to Mueller in second place.

The track was progressively ramping up and soon enough the chequered flag would be out to signal the end of the session and rivers who were on flying laps could improve, could there be some shocks inbound?

At the end of the session it would be the reigning champion Wehrlein who took top spot with a 1:14.610. It would be Rowland, Sebastian Buemi and Evans who progressed through to the duels with attention turning to Group B.

Buemi though would be excluded in the aftermath of Group B for a technical infraction and would therefore be out of the duels. This would promote Edoardo Mortara through in fourth spot instead.

After a short reset for the circuit, the attention of Formula E qualifying would turn to the other 11 drivers in Group B. The 11 drivers participating in the session would be:

• Jean-Eric Vergne & Maximilian Gunther (DS Penske)
• Antonio Felix Da Costa (Porsche)
• Sam Bird (McLaren)
• Nyck De Vries (Mahindra Racing)
• Dan Ticktum (Cupra Kiro)
• Norman Nato (Nissan)
• Nick Cassidy (Jaguar)
• Jake Dennis (Andretti)
• Jake Hughes (Maserati)
• Robin Frijns (Envision)

The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and the session would be underway with all 11 cars entering the circuit and keen to get on with the action and book their places in the duels if possible.

The session would reach the halfway point and many drivers would be finding time as the track was once again improving as Robin Frijns led the way for Envision ahead of Sam Bird, Nyck De Vries and Dan Ticktum who would be provisionally the four through.

Times were improving as both DS Penske drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Maximilian Gunther, would leap themselves up into the top four with Frijns and Bird the top two and separated by just 12 thousandths of a secon with Frijns top with a 1:14.136.

Nick Cassidy of Jaguar was evidence that the track was certainly improving as he would go quickest by over six tenths to Robin Frijns. Antonio Felix Da Costa, Vergne and De Vries would provisionally make up the top four as Group B entered the final minute before the chequered flag.

The chequered flag would be out as drivers would be trying to find clear gaps to lay down their lap times for the final time in Group B at the very end of the session. There would be a seemingly mechanical problem for Nick Cassidy as he bailed out of his final run.

Thankfully for Cassidy, it would be enough for him to get through to the duels as Maximilian Gunther put a great lap together to end Group B top of the pile. It was a narrow margin of seven hundredths to Jake Dennis in second.  Cassidy and Da Costa would join them in the duels.

Nick Cassidy would be excluded too as he also had his lap time deleted and therefore he would be out of qualifying. Jean-Eric Vergne would be through to the duels instead.

Time for the 1v1 knockout duels which would take us to the conclusion of qualifying where drivers would battle it out over a single lap to progress through each phase to take pole position for the 2024/25 Mexico City E-Prix.

First up would be the four quarter finals, with the eight drivers matched up against one another. The winners of each four would progress through to the semi finals. The four quarter finals would be:

1. Mitch Evans (Jaguar) vs Oliver Rowland (Nissan)
2. Edoardo Mortara (Mahindra) vs Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche)
3. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Porsche) vs Jake Dennis (Andretti)
4. Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Penske) vs Maximilian Gunther (DS Penske)

The first quarter final would get underway with the Jaguar of championship leader Mitch Evans heading out first in front of Oliver Rowland. Soon enough, the laps would begin and although Evans would set the lap first.

Evans would cross the line first but would not progress as Rowland would put a beauty of a lap together and would progress by three tenths of a second meaning the championship leader was out.

The second quarter final would be between Edoardo Mortara and Pascal Wehrlein. The winner of this would face Oliver Rowland in the first semi final. It would be a one-sided affair following a mistake early on from Mortara.

Wehrlein would progress by just under nine tenths of a second and it would be a conclusive round with Mortara out of qualifying. Wehrlein would join Rowland in the semi final.

The third quarter final would see the other Porsche of Antonio Felix Da Costa and the Andretti of Jake Dennis. On paper it would be a quarter final that would seem pretty evenly matched but time lost from Dennis would make it a comfortable margin of roughly half a second for Da Costa.

Second in the standings Da Costa would progress through to the semi finals and it would be one of the DS Penske drivers to join him. Would it be Jean-Eric Vergne or Maximilian Gunther to join him?

An all-team battle at DS Penske would go the way of Vergne with a 1:11.190 and the French multiple Formula E champion would progress. Vergne beat Gunther by three tenths of a second to match up against Da Costa in the quarter final.

After a short pause, attention would turn to the semi finals, with just four drivers in the hunt for pole position, for the Mexico City E-Prix. The semi-final match ups would be as follows:

1. Pascal Wehrlein vs Oliver Rowland
2. Antonio Felix Da Costa vs Jean-Eric Vergne

First up in the semi finals would be Pascal Wehrlein against Oliver Rowland. Both drivers performed exceptionally in the first quarter finals and they would be hoping to book their place in the final. 

Wehrlein would be the first to complete his lap as the broadcast showed the laps at the same time and he crossed the line to set a better lap time than the Nissan of Rowland to book his Porsche a place in the final.

Wehrlein would have to wait to find out who would join him in the final. Would it be his teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa or the DS Penske of Jean-Eric Vergne.

At the end of the lap times it would be an all-Porsche final as the Portuguese driver Da Costa would beat Vergne by almost two tenths after it seemed a close fight throughout the 19 cornered lap at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

It would be down to the final with the two Porsche drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix Da Costa battling it out for pole position but would it be Wehrlein or Da Costa to take the three world championship points?

A close fight at the end of the lap would see a narrow victory for Pascal Wehrlein who beat teammate Da Costa by just over a tenth.

This would mean a second pole position in successive years in Mexico City! It's also back to back pole positions for Wehrlein following on from his one in Sao Paulo back in December. He would take pole position, where he won from in the 2023/24 season.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

Great Britain and Maserati's Jake Hughes was fastest in the second and final free practice session of the weekend in Mexico City, on Saturday morning ahead of race day.

Free Practice 2 is the start of a very busy day in Mexico City with qualifying and the E-Prix to follow later on and Hughes has made the perfect start to the day by ending the session fastest overall.

Hughes took top spot with his final lap of the session as the chequered flag was already out. He beat Jaguar's Nick Cassidy by a tenth, who had to settle for second.

Meanwhile reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein completed the top three ahead of Jake Dennis and Wehrlein's Porsche teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa completed the top five. Championship leader Mitch Evans ended 11th.

Saturday arrived in Mexico City and it would be the first race day of 2025 in the 2024/25 season as all the preparation of practice and qualifying would be building up to the Mexico City E- Prix.

Free Practice 2 would be the first session of the day with the qualifying session and the E-Prix to follow later on in the day. Free Practice 1 was held on Friday evening in Mexico City and it was the Porsche of Antonio Felix Da Costa.

A reminder that wet weather could play a factor in Mexico City was visible as in the early hours of the morning, the drivers were set to take to a wet circuit. The green light would be on at the end of the pit lane and the session would be underway.

Half of the grid would head out almost immediately at the start of the 40-minute free practice 2 session. The two DS Penske drivers would be the ones to beat in the early stages as Jean-Eric Vergne would be top of a 1-2 for the team as his teammate Maximilian Gunther would be second.

As the end of the first 10 minutes approached, more drivers would be entering the circuit and attempting to set lap times as they were trying to warm up to the conditions on a very damp circuit. 

Only 18 drivers would bank lap times in the first 10 minutes and the two DS Penske drivers would be top of the times with the order having changed to see Gunther go fastest. This would be short-lived as Vergne would jump back above his teammate on the timing sheets.

Jake Hughes would split the two DS Penske machines to go second fastest but would still be over three tenths back on Vergne. The two DS Penske cars would improve though once again and they would be 1-2 again.

An improved lap from Vergne would see him set a 1:32.484. Gunther would be two tenths back in second with Hughes of Maserati in third. Hughes would be ahead of his Maserati teammate Stoffel Vandoorne who was fourth.

At the halfway point, DS Penske would still be team in control but it would be a change of driver at the top as Gunther would sit fastest with an improved time of 1:31.368 - a lap time three tenths faster than Vergne.

Many drivers were attempting to improve their lap times as there was such a lack of grip on the circuit with many drivers running wide and going deep into corners with the likes of David Beckmann and Oliver Rowland as examples.

A change of the top would come as Jake Dennis would go fastest for Andretti and he would go six tenths faster than Gunther's lap time. There would be a lot of drivers starting to find improved lap times and Norman Nato of Nissan would be one of those.

The two Nissan drivers of Nato and Rowland would both see each other in the top five as the track was starting to ramp up as the sun was beginning to shine. Pascal Wehrlein would knock Rowland sown to sixth as the reigning champion would go second.

Vergne would make it back out on track at the start of the final 10 minutes and would go back to the top of the time sheets. His pace on a damp circuit definitely looked to be something to be reckoned with.

The two-time champion was showing great speed and even though Wehrlein would leap up into second, Vergne would pull 1.8 seconds clear with a great lap of 1:28.064. The track was ramping up as the 40-minute free practice 2 entered the final five minutes.

Vergne would be dislodged at the top of the times by Wehrlein though who improved with a great lap time and pull almost 1.5 seconds clear of Vergne with a 1:26.577. The French racer would soon be down to third as his former teammate, Stoffel Vandoorne, would go second. 

They would all be beaten though by Nick Cassidy as the Jaguar driver would pull himself a full six tenths clear of Wehrlein. The chequered flag would soon be out but Cassidy would fail to stay top!

Hughes of Maserati put a brilliant lap together and would go top at the very end of the session. It was a fairly close gap being under two tenths to Nick Cassidy whose great end to the session would see him finish second. Reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein would complete the top three for Porsche.

2022/23 champion Jake Dennis would be fourth while the Porsche of Antonio Felix Da Costa completed the top five. Mahindra's Nyck De Vries would finish sixth ahead of fellow Dutchman Robin Frijns of Envision Racing, who was seventh.

Stoffel Vandoorne would end up eighth, seven places behind his teammate, while Maximilian Gunther and Oliver Rowland completed the top 10.

There would be a short break in between sessions as the drivers would pause for just over an hour before qualifying which would set the grid for the day's later E-Prix.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

Antonio Felix Da Costa delivered a strong lap time in the Mexico City E-Prix opening practice which was good enough to see him finish fastest on Friday.

Da Costa managed to beat the rest of the field with a 1:10.855 and that was good enough to the see the Poruguese driver end up with the fastest time in Friday's only session of the weekend.

The one-time champion beat young McLaren driver Taylor Barnard by just under a tenth of a second, with Nissan's Brit Oliver Rowland completing the top three.

Reigning champion and Da Costa's teammate Pascal Wehrlein would have to settle for fourth while championship leader Mitch Evans would complete the top five as all 22 drivers would set multiple lap times, in an extremely busy 40 minutes of free practice.

For the first time in 2025 Formula E was ready for a race weekend and it would be none other than round 2 of the 2024/25 championship, which would be taking place in the Mexican capital, Mexico City.

After hosting the opening round in the previous season of 2023/24, the Mexico City E-Prix would play host to round two of this year's championship following the season opener in Sao Paulo back in December 2024.

The green would be on at the end of the pit lane at 17:00 local time and there would be a steady start to proceedings with only a few drivers heading out onto the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which is the same venue as the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix - just a different layout.

Early on in the session, as is normal with free practice 1, there would be a full course yellow test, which was done by the Formula E FIA Race Director Scott Elkins. It would not last long and the green flags would be back out in no time at all.

The test did not quite go to plan for Andretti's Jake Dennis who suffered with an issue on his dash but it was nothing mechanical and it carried on. 

Across the first 10 minutes there would be more and more drivers taking to the circuit for the first time across the weekend with many drivers getting on with flying laps including the Andretti cars of Dennis and his teammate Nico Mueller. 

Muller would spend a large part at the top of the time sheets in the first 10 minutes but at the very end of the first quarter of free practice 1, he would no longer be top. Mitch Evans, the championship leader, would be the driver to do so.

However, Evans would not stay top for long as he would be beaten by both Andretti cars and the Kiro Race of Dan Ticktum. Mueller would sit top once again ahead of his teammate and 2022/23 champion Jake Dennis.

Mueller would have his lap time beaten by Nyck De Vries of Mahindra. Edoardo Mortara, Robin Frijns and Antonio Felix Da Costa would also leap above Muller. Evans would do and with 25 minutes remaining he would go back to fastest with a 1:12.979 - a time half a second quicker than second place driver Da Costa.

The top two in the championship would be split by Dennis who would be the next to go second and Pascal Wehrlein would also move into the top three - pushing his teammate Da Costa down to fourth. 

Drivers were improving and the order was changing in the middle of the field as the track was ramping up. As the session reached the halfway point it would be Evans who would be sitting at the top of the time sheet by 0.118 with his lap time of 1:12.979.

Rain would be starting to fall at the halfway point as Evans was quickest ahead of Dennis and Wehrlein as the top three. 20 minutes of the 40-minute session would remain. 

After a period of time in the pit lane that saw him drop to 11th, on his first lap back out on circuit, Mueller would go third fastest behind his teammate Dennis. Andretti were having a strong start to the weekend. 

Rain would be reported of falling by a few drivers on circuit as well as the virtual race engineer that appeared as a graphic on the screen. As ABT Lola Cars' Team principal, Mark Preston, was being interviewed by the Formula E media on the live broadcast, Lucas Di Grassi his experienced driver would jump up to the top spot.

The track was starting to ramp up more and more as the two DS Penske drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Max Gunther, would leap up to second and third respectively. The two NEOM McLaren drivers Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard would be completing the top five as the session was close to the final 10 minutes.

Di Grassi's time of 1:11.417 would be the time all the drivers would have to aim for and drivers would be getting closer as Sam Bird would go second and would be ahead of fellow British drivers Ticktum and Barnard, who would be third and fourth.

Despite being in second, Bird would still be trailing Di Grassi by 0.274. Bird would drop to third though as Mueller would return to the top two. Mueller was becoming a consistent performer in the session and was constantly being able to find time. Mueller would drop to third though as Da Costa would elevate himself to second.

​Speaking of ever present drivers at the top, Evans would return back to the top of the time sheets however he would fail to stay there as a great effort from Pascal Wehrlein who would lay down a 1:11.172.

Wehrlein would be narrowly ahead of Evans, by 0.028 to be precise, but even he would not stay top for long. It would be Wehrlein's Porsche teammate Da Costa, who would blow the time out of the water.

Da Costa would lay a time down that would be over three tenths quicker than his Porsche teammate and reigning champion Wehrlein. The Portuguese racer's lap time would be a 1:10.855 and would be the time to beat for the rest of the field as the opening practice headed into the final five minutes,

Soon enough the chequered flag would be out and that would signal the end of the session and Da Costa would stay on top of the time sheets with a fantastic effort on his final lap time of 1:10.855. This would be under a tenth faster than second place Taylor Barnard who put together a great final lap for NEOM McLaren. Oliver Rowland would complete the top three for Nissan.

Da Costa's Porsche teammate Pascal Wehrlein would be fourth ahead of Jaguar's Mitch Evans completing the top five for Jaguar. Lucas Di Grassi would take sixth at the end of FP1 ahead of the second Nissan driven by Norman Nato.

Sebastian Buemi, Edoardo Mortara and Stoffel Vandoorne would complete the top 10 as the first of two free practice sessions in Mexico City came to a close. Action would return in Mexico City for free practice 2 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which would kick start the day of the second E-Prix of the season.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal

The 2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship returns this coming weekend as the second round of the championship is to take place in Mexico City, for the first racing action in 2025.

This will be the 11th season of the championship and once again the championship is visiting Mexico City, that held the opening round of the championship in 2023/24, as Pascal Wehrlein took victory on route to his first ever title.

 After winning from the very back of the grid in Sao Paulo back in December, Mitch Evans comes into this round with the championship lead after taking victory in the opening round of the brand new championship.

The gap between he and second place Antonio Felix Da Costa is six points, after the Portugese driver took the fastest lap as well as finishing second so claimed 19 points from the opening round.

For round 2 of the 2024/25 championship, Formula E will visit a familiar setting in the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, which is a well known motorsport venue for mainly hosting the Formula One Mexico City Grand Prix.

Although a different layout to the Mexico City Grand Prix, Formula E still has a layout which is bound to produce excitement and entertainment for fans all around the globe, whether watching via television or being at the track itself.

There are some similarities between the Formula One layout and Formula E layout with a section of the start/finish straight and stadium section being used in the Formula E layout.

The track is made up of 19 corners and has a total lap distance of 2.93km with each sequence of turns opening up overtaking opportunities as well as presenting their own challenges to navigate through and gain speed.

Formula E first visited Mexico back in 2016 and in the 2023/24 season Mexico City saw the opening round of the championship be held. It saw Pascal Wehrlein take the victory ahead of Sebastian Buemi and Nick Cassidy who completed the podium.

It was Wehrlein who also took the pole position for the E-Prix.

Back in December I would see the last Formula E racing action and that racing action would be the action from the opening round of the 2024/25 championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The Sao Paulo E-Prix that had produced great action in previous seasons was set to do the same this time around.

Reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein would start the season off in the best possible way by taking pole position for the opening E-Prix of the season, for the second season in succession. Wehrlein took pole for Porsche and would beat Nissan's Oliver Rowland in the duels final.

It would be the worst possible start to the season in qualifying for Mitch Evans as a mechanical issue saw him not set a lap time and he would start from the very back of the grid.

However, in sport it is important to be resilient and that was the exact word to describe Evans' weekend as he would bounce back in the best possible way as he would take victory from the very back of the grid. It was an action packed race that saw reigning champion Wehrlein fail to finish along with 2022/23 champion Jake Dennis.

Evans took victory ahead of Antonio Felix Da Costa who was second and took the fastest lap for the extra point. In third was NEOM McLaren's Taylor Barnard who took his maiden podium in the championship and became the youngest driver to achieve such achievement. A memorable day for him and the NEOM McLaren team.

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal