Günther's perfect weekend? The e-Formula.news driver ratings for the Jakarta E-Prix 2023

With confidence, efficiency and foresight, Maximilian Günther showed impressive form across the weekend of racing at the 2023 Jakarta E-Prix, taking his first victory of the season. Pascal Wehrlein had the German fans cheering the day before when he laid the foundation for his recapture of the championship lead. In the e-Formula.news driver rating, we evaluate how they and the other drivers fared in Indonesia.

For this, our editors award points on a scale between 1 and 10 for all drivers. They are then sorted according to their average score, and the best ten performances are commented on by our Formula E reporter Tobias Bluhm. Only the individual driving performances are included in the rating, taking the potential of the car or external circumstances out of the equation.

The e-Formula.news driver ratings for the 2023 Jakarta E-Prix

1 | Maximilian Günther | Maserati MSG | 10.0 points

It was the near perfect weekend for Maximilian Günther. In Jakarta, the German impressively showed the influence confidence can have on a driver's performance. The excellent practice pace helped his morale in qualifying, and the pole positions had a positive effect on his race pace. The result: Günther won all sessions except Saturday's race (P3), clinched Maserati's first formula racing victory since Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957 and extended his points tally from 24 to 70!

BOTTOM LINE: With unfathomable dominance, Günther arguably contested the best race weekend of his Formula E career to date.

2 | Jake Dennis | Avalanche Andretti | 9.3 points

Maxilian Günther's top results slightly eclipsed Jake Dennis' driving performance in Indonesia. Yet the Briton also showed his best E-Prix performance for some time: In 7 out of 9 sessions he finished directly behind his former BMW teammate in second, and in Saturday's race Dennis even crossed the finish line one position ahead of Günther.

Four races in a row the Briton has now been on the podium, having failed to collect any points in the four races that preceded them. The ups and downs could become decisive at the end of the year. That should make Dennis' hopes of maintaining his current form all the greater.

BOTTOM LINE: Although Pascal Wehrlein won a race, Dennis closed in on with the new world championship leader. Only one point separates them: It's going to be a gloves-off fight until the very end!

3 | Pascal Wehrlein | TAG Heuer Porsche | 8.3 points

After qualifying on Saturay, relief must have spread through the Porsche garage. For the first time this season, Pascal Wehrlein managed to get through the quarter-finals of the knockout qualifying. In the semi-finals, he lost out to the unbeatable Günther. Nevertheless, for the first time this season Wehrlein managed to put himself in a really good starting position for the E-Prix with P3 on the grid.

In the race itself, the German then made use of his usual efficiency and, also thanks to a good attack mode strategy, overtook Günther and Dennis. He skillfully fended off attacks from his marque colleague in the Andretti, albeit at times on the edge of the permissible, and secured his first podium success since January.

BOTTOM LINE: Pascal Wehrlein will have enjoyed his flight back from Jakarta as world championship leader.

4 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar TCS Racing | 7.3 points

Jaguar has already lost at least 31 points this year because of Sam Bird taking himself and teammate Mitch Evans out of the races for top 10 finishes. On Saturday, the New Zealander was on course for points when Bird crashed into his rear. The retirement is bitter and could seriously threaten Evans' title ambitions. On Sunday, he lacked pace compared to Günther and Dennis, though his pace was enough for a very important third place finish.

BOTTOM LINE: With third place on Sunday, Evans probably maximized the potential of his car. He will want to forget the bitter teammate crash on Saturday as quickly as possible.

5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | DS Penske | 6.7 points

A good race weekend from Stoffel Vandoorne was overdue this season. He drew little attention in Jakarta, but collected important points for his championship account in fourth and ninth. On Saturday, he probably drove the best E-Prix of his year so far, even if he still doesn't seem to have the pace for a podium result. On Sunday, he was troubled by a damaged suspension after an accident and losing radio communications with his pit wall for a significant amount of time.

BOTTOM LINE: In Indonesia, Vandoorne collected another important 14 points. In the drivers' standings, he keeps his hopes of a top 10 result alive.

6 | Edoardo Mortara | Maserati MSG | 6.3 points

Nobody would have wanted to be the teammate of Maximilian Günther in Jakarta. Considering the outstanding pace of the German, Mortara could only draw the shorter straw within the team. At the same time, though, he can also be proud of his own performance, because the Swiss without question also contested his most successful race weekend of the season.

On both days he managed to make it into the knock-out phase of qualifying, where he qualified for grid positions 6 and 4. He particularly impressed team boss James Rossiter on Saturday, as Mortara had previously had to sit out almost all of 2nd Free Practice following an early accident. However, he lacked some pace in race trim. On Sunday, Mortara struggled with brake issues and a missed first attack mode activation, which meant he only finished eighth.

BOTTOM LINE: Mortara showed promising signs in Jakarta. Even if he had to clearly subordinate to his teammate, he may be very satisfied with his own performance!

7 | Antonio Felix da Costa | TAG Heuer Porsche | 6.3 points

Similarly to Mortara and Günther, Antonio Felix da Costa also had to play second fiddle to his teammate Pascal Wehrlein in Jakarta. Individually, however, the Portuguese also showed a decent E-Prix, in which he suffered on both days - once again - from poor qualifying pace.

BOTTOM LINE: With 7th and 8th place Felix da Costa at least contributed a few points to Porsche's World Championship account.

8 | Robin Frijns | ABT Cupra | 6.3 points

Every points result is like a victory for ABT Cupra this season. All the greater was the relief and surprise mixed in the German team's garage when Robin Frijns crossed the finish line in ninth position on Saturday. This was preceded by a good qualifying session in which he even made it into the duels and secured grid position 7. In the race, he stayed out of all scuffles and recorded the best result of the season so far for ABT.

BOTTOM LINE: One can only dream what would be possible for Frijns if he had a better powertrain at his disposal. At the moment, he's in really good shape!

9 | Jean-Eric Vergne | DS Penske | 6.0 points

It was a weekend of two halves for Jean-Eric Vergne. On Saturday, the Frenchman showed very good qualifying pace to secure a place on the second row of the grid, finishing in 5th position. On Sunday, his front wing broke in the race after a crash, leaving him no better than 16th.

BOTTOM LINE: A solid weekend from Vergne, who with five races to go in the season still has an outside chance of winning the World Championship, 37 points behind Wehrlein.

10 | Sacha Fenestraz | Nissan | 6.0 points

Saturday did not go according to plan for Sacha Fenestraz. The Frenchman, whose performance at the preceding Monaco E-Prix was one of the biggest surprises of the weekend, did not make it past the group stage of qualifying and fell more than 48 seconds behind race winner Wehrlein during the race. He saw the checkered flag in Jakarta in 19th place and was somewhat at a loss afterwards, trying to dissect his own performance with his team.

In doing so, Nissan seemed to have hit upon the solution to the problem. On Sunday, he grabbed P7 in qualifying. And also in the course of the race Fenestraz presented himself from his best side, as he reached the finish in 4th place and thus repeated his best result of the season.

BOTTOM LINE: While he was in no man's land on Saturday, Fenestraz was able to build on his Monaco pace on Sunday.