Porsche maintains Formula E manufacturers’ championship lead after tough Monaco weekend

Although Porsche Formula E Team drivers Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Müller had challenging weekends in which they were caught up in incidents, Wehrlein remains in the thick of the drivers’ title fight.

Wehrlein is fourth in the standings, just two points behind third-place, while Müller is just behind in fifth.

While it was a tough outcome for the Porsche factory team, it was a breakthrough weekend for two emerging Formula E stars in its customer teams.

Both Pepe Martí, of Cupra Kiro, and Andretti’s Felipe Drugovich scored their first podium finishes in the series.

Story of race one

It was a tough Saturday for the Porsche Formula E Team, with Wehrlein lining up fifth ahead of Müller in sixth.

Both cars stayed where they were in the early stages, before Müller dropped back to ninth as he conserved energy.

He was back to seventh, behind Wehrlein, by lap 13 before the pair unfortunately made contact at Rascasse.

Müller suffered a broken front wing and Wehrlein had a rear right puncture, forcing him into the pits.

Though Müller recovered to the points, two post-race penalties for collisions dropped him to P11. Wehrlein’s no-score meant he dropped to second in the drivers’ championship.

Story of race two

A bold strategy took Müller from his 14th position on the starting grid into the race lead early in Sunday’s event.

He was the first driver in the field to dive for the attack mode loop and took six minutes of additional power that allowed him to carve through the field into a comfortable lead.

Inevitably he then came under attack from drivers who went for the attack mode later in the race, and unfortunately during one of those battles Müller was taken wide into the barriers and forced back into the midfield.

That wasn’t the end of the story, however, as Müller produced a great recovery drive and saved his remaining two minutes of attack mode to the final laps.

He was able to make it back up to a points-scoring seventh place, and may well have made further progress but for full course yellows for crashes elsewhere in the order limiting the final laps of racing.

It was a tougher day for Wehrlein, who was caught up in multiple incidents that left his car damaged and consigned him to a 12th-place finish.

After a post-race penalty for another driver, Müller was promoted to sixth, and Wehrlein to 11th.

Those results leave Wehrlein and Müller fourth and fifth in the drivers’ championship, albeit with Wehrlein still within 27 points of the new leader. The Porsche team is still firmly in contention in the teams’ standings too in second place, while Porsche maintains a 12-point lead in the manufacturers’ standings.

Customer racing

Dan Ticktum started on pole for Cupra Kiro for the first of the two races, and led for much of the race.

He dropped to fourth after the pitstops, but was back into the podium places before late contact with António Félix da Costa at the Nouvelle Chicane.

The British driver was handed a drive-through penalty for causing the collision, which was converted to 33-seconds after the race and dropped him to 12th in the classification.

The penalty handed third place to his team-mate, Martí - his first Formula E rostrum.

Andretti had a similarly mixed Saturday.

Jake Dennis was taken out of the race after contact with Citroen’s Nick Cassidy on lap four, while team-mate Drugovich was fourth in his best result of the season so far.

Cupra Kiro had a tougher Sunday, though it began well with a commanding pole for Ticktum. Incidents and a penalty in the race itself added up to leave him only 14th in a race in which he initially looked like a strong victory contender, while Marti’s day ended in a collision with Nick Cassidy.

But Drugovich built on his strong race one by qualifying fifth for race two and then remaining in the podium battle throughout.

He stayed firm through some fraught racing and crossed the line third before a penalty for Edoardo Mortara elevated him to the runner-up position.

His team-mate Dennis scored too in sixth place, before a post-race penalty demoted him to 12th.

Coming next

Formula E heads to the vibrant coastal city of Sanya, China for Round 12 on June 20.

It will mark the series’ first visit to the city since Season 5, in 2019.

The race marks the championship’s second in China, taking place two weeks before the Shanghai double-header.