The Swiss-Italian joined the team at the start of the year, but despite his and the team’s best efforts, they remained the only team not to score points as we headed into Round 9.
Despite reaching the Duels on two prior occasions this year, both Mortara and his teammate Nyck de Vries haven’t managed to finish in the top ten yet. However, the six-time race winner managed to progress through into the Duel Finals and secure the Julius Baer Pole Position.
It’s also Mahindra’s first pole since Lucas di Grassi started first on the grid in Mexico City in Season 9.
“It’s my first pole position with Mahindra,” Mortara said after the qualifying event. “It's been a tough first part of the season. The guys worked very hard with a few hiccups, especially in the last race weekend and this goes for them. They had to rebuild the entire chassis after Monaco’s shunt and I was glad I could bring that you know for the team.”
Mortara’s car suffered a fault in Monaco which sent him into the barriers at high speed before the entry to the swimming pool complex. He was forced to retire the car and has needed extensive repairs ahead of the 2024 SUN MINIMEAL Berlin E-Prix double-header.
“We got our first points because of the pole position, so that's the first goal done. It's the best place to start and I'm expecting a difficult race because slipstream will play quite a big role. Hopefully we can achieve a good result.
RESULTS: Qualifying, the SUN Minimeal Berlin E-Prix Round 9
“It’s been slow and steady progress and the team has done a fantastic job with understanding what the issues were in the first part of the season, and we were bringing slowly but surely you know some development in terms of software. Glad that actually everything worked out.”
Next up is the race, which starts at 15:00 local time.