Mahindra Racing dominate preseason Formula E testing in Valencia

LONDON: Mahindra Racing set the pace during preseason testing for the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and the annual women’s test, at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia this week, sending a strong signal ahead of season 12.

The annual fall outing in Spain marked the final chance for the 10 teams to validate their off-season development and fine-tune their cars for the start of the new campaign on Dec. 6 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

For Mahindra it was another statement of intent, after a breakthrough season last year under CEO and Team Principal Frederic Bertrand in which the team finished fourth out of 11, while Nyck de Vries and Edoardo Mortara took eighth and ninth spots respectively in the drivers’ championship.

The team’s new Mahindra M12Electro, an evolution of the car that last season scored five podiums for de Vries and Mortara, immediately proved competitive.

Mortara topped two of the six individual sessions, finishing the week fastest overall with a time of 1 minute 21.493 seconds around the 2-mile circuit, while de Vries was fifth, less than a tenth of a second off his teammate’s benchmark. Mortara also won Tuesday’s race simulation, with de Vries third.

“I’m happy with how the test has gone,” Mortara said. “It’s given us the opportunity to run through different testing programs, and plenty of data to take away and analyze. The car feels competitive; we have definitely made some improvements.

“It’s difficult to know what everybody else has done but we are happy and encouraged with the work that we’ve done and now we look forward to starting the season in Sao Paulo.”

De Vries said: “Overall, we can be pleased with this week in Valencia. We were able to get through our program, validate the package we will