Maximilian Günther believes his strong performance last weekend at the season-opening Mexico City E-Prix is “very promising” for the campaign ahead, given how badly the event went for him 12 months ago.
Following a turbulent off-season for Maserati MSG Racing which has seen them enter Season 10 without a permanent Team Principal, many expected them to struggle in the Mexican capital.
Those expectations became more concrete following Free Practice 1, where a collision with the wall at the final corner for Günther resulted in a red flag just seven minutes into the first session of 2024. It was certainly a shaky start to the weekend for Günther; however, he quickly put the incident behind him.
From Free Practice 2 onwards, he demonstrated the sort of pace which saw him set the fifth-quickest time in pre-season testing last October and claim four podiums – including a win in Jakarta – in the space of seven races in Season 9. Günther did well to progress to the duels in qualifying, although he was eliminated by Mitch Evans.
In his duel with Evans, the Jaguar TCS Racing driver actually set the fastest lap of the entire E-Prix. Despite being knocked-out in the quarter-finals, Günther actually started the season-opener from P3, following a one-place grid penalty for both Nick Cassidy and Evans.
Günther made an excellent start from third and remained there for the vast majority of the race, before unfortunately falling behind Cassidy when he activated his second Attack Mode. Ultimately, the German driver didn’t quite have the pace to get the podium position back, leaving him to finish in fourth.
Whilst a podium would’ve been wonderful for the 26-year-old, P4 was significantly better than his 11th place finish in Mexico City 12 months ago.
Reflecting on his performance in the season-opener, Günther is very pleased with how it went, although he admits that losing the rostrum was “a shame”.
“A very good first weekend of the season for us with third in qualifying, fourth in the race, and some very good points. I think we showed some good pace here,” Günther said.
“Mexico was very difficult for us last year, so to start the season with such a strong result now is very promising. I’m super happy for the whole team, and they did a great job. The car felt amazing in qualifying, and it’s a shame that we lost the podium with the second Attack Mode, but we gave it our very best. I’m really happy with fourth today.”
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