ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edo Mortara headed home Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) and Pascal Wehrlein (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team) in the Formula E: Accelerate Driver Challenge from the new-to-rFactor 2 Rome E-Prix track.
Mortara kept his nose clean as Frijns and Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ) sparred throughout, coming into contact a number of times in a robust race-long scrap. The Dutchman came out of it on top of that particular battle to finish second, whilst Wehrlein steered his Porsche calmly through the race to a tidy third.
A number of drivers, including Mortara, lost the car with the extra power on tap coming out of the ATTACK MODE activation zone on the bumpy circuit. The Swiss pirouetted but remained unscathed and had enough in-hand over the rest to remain untroubled. Antonio Felix da Costa (DS TECHEETAH), though, did suffer – losing his early third spot to wind up fifth, just behind Vandoorne’s battle-scarred Mercedes-EQ.
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Maximilian Guenther (BMW i Andretti Motorsport) was another driver who struggled to attune himself to the undulating Rome streets. Despite more than one spin, he brought the car home sixth. Nico Mueller (DRAGON / PENSKE AUTOSPORT), Rene Rast (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler), Mitch Evans (Jaguar Racing) and Alexander Lynn (Mahindra Racing) rounded out the points-paying positions.
“It was a very good race,” said Mortara. “I made a mistake when I took the first ATTACK MODE but otherwise, I kept it clean and could pull a decent gap to second and third with Stoffel (Vandoorne) and Robin (Frijns) fighting each other.
“Erhan is doing a tremendous job. I’m a big fan of the Accelerate championship and I’ve been following it closely. He’s very quick and since the start he’s been on it!”