Challenging afternoon for Maserati MSG Racing in Monaco E-Prix

Maserati MSG Racing faced a challenging afternoon on home turf, with the team falling short of encouraging early potential at the 2023 Monaco E-Prix.

The Principality’s only racing team returned the podium in Berlin two weeks earlier and showed clear pace throughout the Monaco weekend after setting the fastest time in FP2.

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Challenging afternoon report for Maserati MSG Racing

Drivers Edoardo Mortara and Maximilian Günther both advanced to Formula E’s duel stages from Group B, and fought gallantly in the head-to-heads.

Although Edo lost out in the Quarter-Finals, Max advanced to the penultimate stage but was beaten by Jake Hughes, with the duo starting the race from fourth and seventh on the grid.

After adopting an aggressive energy saving strategy at the start, both Edo and Max lost ground in the opening phase of the race but rallied their efforts after the opening third.

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Running in-formation, the pair were locked in the battle for a place inside the top five – a position which Max held after overtaking Dan Ticktum and Jake Hughes on laps 13 and 14.

Both drivers activated Attack Mode on lap 17 and set out to recover after losing track position, although a stack up ahead, and evasive manoeuvre from Max left Edo with front wing damage.

On lap 22, Max came to blows with Ticktum when trying to overtake the NIO 333 driver who, with front wing damage and reduced steering, pushed the German into the wall and out of the race.

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This left Edo as our remaining challenger but with damaged machinery, the Swiss-Italian’s best efforts were compounded. He took the chequered flag in 12th to narrowly miss out on points.

Formula E’s ninth season will continue on 3-4 June with a double-header race in Jakarta, Indonesia.

In their words

“Formula E seems to have adopted a new form of racing, and it’s not one that I like. From the start, the field drove around 8-10 seconds off the pace, simply waiting until they have enough energy compared to the laps remaining and once they have enough, the pace increases. From there it becomes a battle to survive within the train and to not damage the car. We showed good pace in practice, took that into qualifying, and the guys drove an efficient race to get to the front group. Unfortunately, with around 10 laps to go, the cars in front came to a near stop in the hairpin which caused Max to swerve in response, but Edo was on his right, and it broke his front wing, there was nowhere for Edo to go. Max’s race ended shortly after that from contact with [Dan] Ticktum. Overall, a disappointing race after showing great speed over the weekend.”

James Rossiter, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing

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“It’s frustrating to have another difficult one this weekend. The pace we had in practice and qualifying was good and we did an intelligent strategy by saving so much energy at such an early point in the race. I was running close behind Max, he tried to avoid an incident ahead, turned into me and broke my wing – in that situation, there’s very little you can do and it’s becoming more and more common with this new style of racing. There are positives we can take into Jakarta.” 

Edoardo Mortara, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing

“Today started really well for us, being fast and competitive in both practice sessions. Qualifying was great for me too, putting the car on the second row of the grid. We achieved our goals in this regard, and then tried to manage a good race. For sure, there are things that we can review but we were looking for a top five result today, which I think was realistic. It’s very hard to accept, being taken out by a competitor like we did today, but we need to accept it and move forward.”

Maximilian Günther, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing

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“Our first FE race in Monaco started well with good results both in practice and qualifying. Unfortunately Max got bumped, and Edo finished 12th after an exciting race. We are happy about the Team, the drivers and the cars preparation. We look ahead with excitement and positive attitude to the next E-Prix.”

Giovanni Sgro, Head of Maserati Corse

The race In numbers

Edoardo Mortara
Free Practice One // P4
Free Practice Two // P12
Qualifying // P7 [1:29.484, Quarter-Final 3]
Race // P12
Fastest Lap // 1.32.513
Championship Position // P20 [5 points]

Maximilian Günther
Free Practice One // P3
Free Practice Two // P1
Qualifying // P4 [1:29.450, Quarter-Final 3]
Race // DNF
Fastest Lap // 1.33.906
Championship Position // P12 [24 points]

Maserati MSG Racing
Championship Position // P8 [29 points]

Published by Maserati on Newspress

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