Mahindra was in sensational form during Sunday’s Formula E season finale in London.
Nyck de Vries led a maiden front-row lockout for the Banbury-based team in qualifying, knocking out championship contenders Mitch Evans and Pascal Wehrlein in the duel stages to claim pole position.
In the race, the M12 Electro again appeared to be the class of the field, with de Vries controlling the race from the front ahead of team-mate Edoardo Mortara. A 1-2 result appeared within reach, particularly with most of the usual frontrunners further down the field and engaged in their own fight for the drivers’ title.
While attention was focused on what turned into a fierce battle between eventual champion Wehrlein and title rival Jake Dennis in the lower reaches of the top 10, DS Penske’s Taylor Barnard caused a stir at the front, passing Mortara and de Vries in quick succession to take the lead.
2020-21 champion de Vries tried his best to repass the young Brit, but ultimately had to settle for second position, the pair crossing the line just six tenths apart.
Mahindra could understandably have been disappointed at missing an opportunity to cap the Gen3 era with a victory. Instead, the mood was one of celebration as it secured third place in the teams’ championship.
Finishing as the ‘best of the rest’ behind Formula E heavyweights Jaguar and Porsche was a huge deal for the Indian manufacturer, which had mounted an incredible recovery after starting the Gen3 era with the least competitive package on the grid.
“I think we executed very well. We raced as a team, we executed as a team,” de Vries told Motorsport.com.
“The primary priority was to finish third in the teams’ championship and that’s what we delivered. Of course, if you race like that, you need to make some compromises. You can’t expect to win and have both cars up at the front.
“So, yes, we potentially missed the opportunity to win because I think we really could, but we achieved what we wanted to achieve and we had both cars on the podium and that’s what we need to celebrate.”
Nyck De Vries, Mahindra Racing, Edoardo Mortara, Mahindra Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Getty Images
How Mahindra lost potential London win
Mahindra had looked capable of taking victory throughout the weekend, having already missed out on a strong result on Saturday after struggling to get its tyres into the right window in qualifying.
On Sunday, however, the team got everything right in the grid-deciding session, with Mortara even taking a car with a bent steering to the front row of the grid.
With the Mahindra duo starting 1-2 and the championship’s usual frontrunners on the back foot after qualifying, this was the team’s big chance to score what would have been a third win of the season. But ultimately neither driver built a big enough buffer when they were at the front, allowing Barnard to come through with a late attack mode.
Mortara was visibly aggrieved when de Vries backed up the field in the opening laps of the race, as the Dutchman tried to conserve energy and dictate the pace. More significant was Mortara missing his first attack mode activation, prompting Mahindra to swap the pair so the Swiss driver could make his second attempt without losing places to rival cars.
Even later in the race, with de Vries back in the lead, he didn’t build a big enough advantage, as he and Mortara continued to run close to each other.
After Barnard came through, Mortara dropped over six seconds from the front, but de Vries remained in the hunt until the final lap, as he made a valiant attempt at repassing the DS Penske driver.
“I think a 1-2 was almost impossible, but a 1-3 was very possible. We decided to stay together, to continue to help each other out,” said de Vries.
“Obviously, I would have been able to build up a bit of a buffer for Taylor [not] to catch me. I didn’t need that much because he was running out [of attack mode] in Turn 3 and he overtook me at T20, so I only had four corners left.
“But as I said, we should not be disappointed at all. We need to celebrate P3 in the championship and I’m the first one to say that we did the right thing and we raced good as a team.
“As I said, there are several points that we could have optimised differently, but we shouldn’t speak and think like that. We need to celebrate P3.”
Asked whether Mahindra would have played it differently if third place in the championship wasn’t at stake, he added: “Maybe, I don’t know. But I think our strength is that we race and we work as a team. To consider that we finished third in the championship, 17 points behind Porsche, is incredible. Their resources are almost triple ours.”
Nyck De Vries, Mahindra Racing, Edoardo Mortara, Mahindra Racing
Photo by: Joe Portlock / Getty Images
Mortara’s role
Mortara had been supreme over one lap this year, and also had the upper hand over de Vries for the majority of the season in race trim as well, despite failing to score a win compared with two for his team-mate.
However, he appeared the slower of the two Mahindras on Sunday, especially in the final stages when he needed to act as a rear-gunner for de Vries.
The 39-year-old, who scored four poles in Formula E this year, even suggested that de Vries would have won on Sunday had he done a better job of supporting his team-mate.
“I’m a bit disappointed today. Especially during the race, there were a couple of things that I should have been able to do a little bit better,” Mortara said in his TV interview. “As a team, I think that we did a perfect job, and potentially, I think that Nyck could have won that race with a better job from mine.
“First of all, congratulations to Taylor and fair play to him; he had two good overtaking manoeuvres. But I should have probably kept a bit more close in Turn 19, which would have made his life a little bit harder for a couple of turns, that would have probably given a little bit more room for Nyck.”
However, the disappointment of the missed victory was quickly replaced by the joy of beating Porsche customer Andretti in the battle for third in the standings.
