Seoul, South Korea: Mahindra Racing took pole position and a second-place finish in the first of two races of the FIA ABB Formula E Seoul E-Prix, held in the Seoul Olympic Park Stadium earlier today, thanks to an outstanding performance in tricky conditions by Oliver Rowland (GBR) in his #30 Mahindra M8Electro.
In the swansong weekend for the Gen2 machine, and on the eve of the 100th Formula E race for Mahindra Racing, the brave Brit showed ultimate car control in the wet to qualify on pole. In the final of the Duel battles he went head-to-head with Lucas Di Grassi, who will join the Indian team for the Gen3 era, out-qualifying him by 0.6 of a second.
The race was marred with incidents and, while seven cars retired from the race, Rowland kept his cool, kept it on track and finished in second place to take a total of 21 points towards the team’s tally to climb one place in the overall team standings.
Round 15
– Oliver Rowland: Qualifying – 1 / Race – 2 / Points – 21
– Alexander Sims: Qualifying – 21 / Race – DNF / Points – 0
OLIVER ROWLAND: “The race was tricky. Overtaking is difficult on this track especially at the beginning when we couldn’t use much energy. So, getting Lucas back on the first lap was key to maintaining the second-place result. It’s a shame about the start because with the difficulty overtaking it could have been a potential win. At one point, I started to apply pressure on Mitch [Evans] but then had a close-call with the wall so had a word with myself, decided to be sensible and took second place. I think the team nailed the set-up and strategy today. We did the maximum we could – we just need to do it again tomorrow.”
DILBAGH GILL, TEAM PRINCIPAL: “That feels like we got the monkey off our back! I think we were really strong today. To secure the pole position Rowland drove really well in difficult conditions. Although in a way that turned out to be a slight disadvantage as we started on the paint and he got a bit of wheel spin dropping him back to third. He did a great job to reclaim second place. Race pace was really strong for both cars so now we get our heads down again and make sure we take full advantage of our package tomorrow.”
SEASON 8
MAHINDRA RACING [8th] 46pts
OLIVER ROWLAND [14th] 32pts
ALEXANDER SIMS [16th] 14pts
SEASON 8 STATS
Wins: 0
Podiums: 1
Pole Positions: 1
Duel Appearances: 6
Fastest Laps: 0