Mahindra driver Felix Rosenqvist scored both his and the team’s maiden victory in Formula E with a controlled performance in the first race of the Berlin ePrix weekend.
The Swedish racer, competing in his first season in the all-electric series, moved into second place at the start before closing in on race leader Lucas di Grassi during the opening stint.
Rosenqvist then dived around the outside of di Grassi’s Audi Sport Abt car into the first corner to take the lead, just before the round of pitstops and car swaps.
From there, he emerged from the stop ahead and opened up a comfortable lead in the final part of the race, pulling away in the closing stages.
He went on to pick up his first Formula E win, crossing the line 2.2 seconds clear of di Grassi in a controlled and mature second stint.
Di Grassi claimed second place to close on title rival Sébastien Buemi in the championship, with Nick Heidfeld in third to give Mahindra its first double-podium in Formula E.
DS Virgin Racing’s José María López started second but he dropped to fourth at the start and couldn’t recover, leading a train of cars for most of race one in Berlin.
Jean-Éric Vergne was fifth on the road but an unsafe release handed the Techeetah driver a five-second time penalty, with the Frenchman falling to ninth.
This promoted Buemi to fifth, having come from 14th on the grid to steadily move up the order throughout the race. His Renault e.dams team-mate Nicolas Prost was sixth.
Daniel Abt was seventh, with Sam Bird losing several spots in the pitstop phase to finish eighth. Maro Engel completed the top 10, behind Vergne.
In his first race for Techeetah, Stephane Sarrazin was 12th, while his Venturi replacement Tom Dillmann finished down in 19th. Early problems put Mitch Evans out of the race.
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