Edo Mortara after his ups and downs on Formula E Friday in Jeddah: "Don't quite know what happened"

The start of Friday's Formula E World Championship race in Jeddah did not go according to plan at all for pole-sitter Edoardo Mortara. The Mahindra driver lost five places straight away after a miserable start to the race, but was able to fight back strongly as the race progressed and finish second behind race winner Pascal Wehrlein. After the race, Mortara was not quite sure what had caused the poor start. However, it is reasonable to assume that he did not set off with four-wheel drive.

Friday started very well for Mortara with pole position in Jeddah. Although he made slight contact with the wall after turn 13, he secured first place in the thrilling final duel against Max Günther - his first pole since Berlin 2024. His start to the race, on the other hand, was very poor. After the lights went out and the field set off, the Swiss rider's Mahindra kicked up a lot of smoke and dropped back to sixth place.

"Was good for the show"

During the race, however, Mortara made a strong comeback and worked his way back up to second place with a good strategy. He was only unable to overtake race winner Pascal Wehrlein: "It certainly looks nice in the pictures", joked the 39-year-old in an interview after the race.

"I don't know exactly what happened. I lost five places and then I was surrounded by cars that I had to fight with", he summarised his start to the race. "I don't know whether I only had rear-wheel drive or for what reason the four-wheel drive wasn't working. We will probably have to investigate this definitively with our data."

"In Formula E, no two races are the same"

Despite everything, he praised his team: "The team has done a really good job since the beginning of the year, especially with the starts, even if it has not been ideal. But that is not the end of the world. After all, we still finished the race in second place."

In the press conference, Mortara ventured a brief look ahead to Saturday's race: "First of all, we are trying to qualify well again. Today I really had confidence in the car. Tomorrow's race should be completely different to today. In Formula E, no two races are the same. The focus will be more on saving energy again, which should cause a bit more chaos. I'm hoping for a race with as few problems as possible"

The second race of the double-Header in Jeddah starts on Saturday at 18:05 CET. As usual, e-Formula.news will be reporting again, including our live ticker for all sessions.