Rowland finds it difficult to win Mexico City E-Prix without late safety car

oliver roland He believes “it would have been difficult for him to win” at the Mexico City E-Prix had he not passed three cars on the same lap for the lead after a late safety car.

The Nissan driver took his first Formula E victory of the season and his first at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit on Saturday, despite only leading the final six laps in a race dominated by Porsche drivers. Antonio Felix Da Costa And Pascal Wehrlein,

The Briton was only in fourth place and several seconds behind da Costa and Wehrlein when he activated his final six-minute attack mode moments before a safety car was called. david beckmanKapra Kiro is trapped.

A quick recovery meant that Rowland still had a little over a minute available when racing restarted with six laps remaining, and the frontrunners had already used both attack modes, passing Andretti. sent jake dennisWehrlein and da Costa came within a lap to take an unexpected victory.

“I think there was an element of luck in terms of the safety car but I also lost about six minutes of attack mode,” said Rowland.

“But I honestly think without that safety car it would have been difficult for me to win because I was struggling a bit to be efficient after about 10 laps.

“We were in a race to get the pieces together with a little luck.”

When asked what would have been possible if the first of the two safety cars had not been in place, Rolland admitted that a podium was probably the maximum.

“I guess it’s hard to say. I don’t have exact data on energy,” he said.

“I think I would have got back into them (the top three), but I think if I had passed them (with Attack Mode) I would have been too fed up and struggling to maintain the lead. Would have happened, this is my inner feeling.

“I think my strategy at the time might have been to get to these guys and then solidify the podium, but then when I got the chance to go for it, I just went for it.”

Porsche locked out the front row for the first time in its Formula E history in Mexico, as defending champion Wehrlein led da Costa in the opening stages.

The pair led 26 of the 36 laps between themselves, with da Costa passing Wehrlein at the close of lap 28 and the decisive safety car period.

On the restart, the Portuguese driver defended himself from Rolland at the Turn 9/10 chicane and moved to cover the inside at Turn 12, but was unable to stop Rolland from moving ahead with all-wheel-drive.

“Oliver was very decisive. I defended hard and I think there wasn’t much room left and it’s always good to race when it’s hard and fair,” said da Costa, who is leading the championship standings for the first time since his title-winning campaign in 2019. are leading. -20.

“I thought today we had a 1-2 score for the team and then that safety car, I still have to go back and look at it.

“Whether Oliver might have had enough strength to get back to the front or not, I guess we’ll never know, but it ruined our party a bit.”