Maserati MSG Racing scores points in action-packed Hyderabad E-Prix

ABU DHABI: The Hyderabad E-Prix held on the last weekend marked a successful return of the World Championship motor racing in India. Maserati MSG Racing battled in the race with the Maserati Tipo Folgore Gen 3 driven by Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther and grabbed the 10th position.

Edo did well and set the fourth fastest time in Group B, which advanced him to the duel stages. His teammate Max also performed well and progressed to the head-to-head after a lap time deletion for McLaren’s Jake Hughes. However, Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans narrowly beat Max to the semi-finals while a track extension resulted in the lap time deletion for Edo.

Max held his position in fifth place at the beginning, although contact with Nick Cassidy made Edo pit for repairs on lap four and rejoined the race in 22nd place. On lap 11, Max slipped to sixth after a failed Attack Mode activation.  

The German driver showed a positive recovery despite facing a setback that caused him to drop down to the 16th position. Edo, on the other hand, started to make progress and moved up to 19th place. The situation changed when a Safety Car was deployed on lap 23 out of 32 and increased the chance of scoring points. Well, both drivers kept pushing their limits with the late Attack Mode activation strategy,

And as a result, Edo finished in 11th place, which later was promoted to 10th place after a penalty for Sebastien Buemi. Max finished in 13th place.

While commenting on the performance of the team, James Rossiter, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing said, “This weekend has been positive but challenging, but we’ve shown a clear step forward in speed, with both drivers making it through to the qualifying duels. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side in the race. Max unfortunately lost too much time stuck behind the crash between [Sam> Bird and [Mitch> Evans, and Edo did a good job to come back later in the race after a collision in the early part of the race. Although we’ve unlocked more pace, we need to keep following our processes so we can continue to find more performance.”

Edoardo Mortara, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing said, “It’s been an up and down weekend from my perspective, but our performance is getting better. Over one lap, we were definitely faster but the race was difficult to assess because I was compromised after the contact I had at the beginning.” 

Maximilian Günther, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing, said. “It’s heartbreaking to walk away like this from the weekend. We’ve made a good step forward in comparison to the first two weekends of the season and had a strong pace in qualifying and the race. It’s disappointing to miss out on what could have been a very strong result, but it’s just part of racing.

Well, the team hopes to come back stronger in the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix that will be held in South Africa on Saturday, 25 February 2023.

Also read: 2023 Diriyah E-Prix: Maserati MSG Racing faces tough opening race