Diriyah E-Prix: Mortara beats Frijns to win as De Vries struggles

Mortara had overtaken Venturi team-mate Lucas di Grassi at Turn 18 amid a furious battle among the front-runners, and then had to hold off the advances of Envision driver Frijns – who had swept past di Grassi on lap 29 in his bid for victory.

But a late safety car for the stricken Mahindra of Alexander Sims, who hit the wall at Turn 6 and came to a stop, bunched up the field – arguably more than expected, the field momentarily stopped at the top of the hill as the safety car waited for the recovery vehicle.

But as the clock ticked past the 41-minute threshold, no time was added on – and the slow progress of clearing Sims’ car at the top of the circuit gave no opportunity for anything other than a last-corner dash to the finish which Mortara easily navigated for his third Formula E victory.

Mortara had started alongside polesitter Nyck de Vries on the grid, but the Dutchman held on into Turn 1 and looked likely to put together two successive victories - having won yesterday’s race at Diriyah.

The Mercedes driver navigated the first flurry of attack mode uses, leading Mortara and di Grassi through the activation zone to remain ahead.

But di Grassi went for an early second activation, taking his hit of extra power on lap 12 and undercutting Frijns – who tried to cover him off a lap later.

Mortara followed suit, falling behind di Grassi, but de Vries elected to save his own attack mode - leaving him vulnerable to their advances with a 30kW deficit.

Di Grassi then pulled a move on de Vries heading into Turn 18, attempting to take the outside line, but de Vries got on the brakes later and tried to bat the 2016-17 champion away.

De Vries led the early laps but lost out through attack mode deployments

Photo by: Simon Galloway /