Porsche drivers disappointed after losing Formula E 1-2 win in Mexico: "Ruined the party for us"

After Porsche looked like the firm favourites for long stretches of the Mexico City E-Prix, Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein ultimately lost the race win to Nissan driver Oliver Rowland. After the race, they struggled with strategy and a lack of racing luck, which robbed them of another one-two victory in Mexico.

The works team's two Porsche 99X Electric cars had already shown impressive form in qualifying: Felix da Costa and Wehrlein reached the duel phase and won their first two duels, meaning they met in the final. Wehrlein narrowly won this - the fourth pole position for the German at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The pair also left their mark on the E-Prix and drove a commanding race, with Felix da Costa overtaking his team-mate thanks to a different attack-mode strategy. He had previously defended Wehrlein against Rowland's attacks and even shielded him from behind when the attack mode was activated. By lap 28, they had already pulled out a 4.5-second lead over Rowland, who was in fourth place behind Jake Dennis.

Then, however, the safety car came out because the Cupra Kiro had to be recovered by David Beckmann. The lead was lost. Thanks to the quick work of the stewards, the race was reopened after just one lap, leaving Rowland with more than a minute of his attack mode left. He used this to take the lead, which he did not relinquish until the finish. This left Porsche in 2nd and 3rd place.

"I think it didn't go by plan," said a disappointed Pascal Wehrlein after the race. "We were looking strong, strong on energy, leading almost half of the race initially. Somehow it went out of our hands. It is what it is, I'm sure we will learn something from it."

Felix da Costa: "Don't know if it would have been enough"

"Of course I wanted the win today," said his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa. "But we have to be happy with those 18 points. Oliver was very decisive, I defended hard and I think there wasn't much space left. I don't know maybe Oliver would have been enough to come back to the front or not (without the safety car) , I guess we'll never know. It ruined our party a little bit and our plan what we were doing up to that point."

"Mostly we were keeping an eye on the guys that had attack mode left, so that was Oliver and Mitch", said the Portuguese driver, describing the team's strategy in the final phase of the race. "We were just trying to manage that and trying to build that gap because we knew he would be coming at some point and then we will have to see what will happen with energy at that time. I think both myself and Pascal, we were good on energy. So it would have been a nice fight with Oliver at the end, had that safety car not come out."

Even though it wasn't enough for the one-two victory, Porsche travelled home from Mexico with the lead in all three championships: Felix da Costa leads the drivers' standings by 12 points ahead of Rowland. In the team classification, Porsche even has a 31-point lead over McLaren. In the manufacturers' standings, however, the lead over Nissan is just one point.