Maserati MSG Racing picked up where we left off last time racing in Tokyo with victory. A perfectly timed Pit Boost saw Stoffel Vandoorne climb the field from 14th to take the team’s first win of the season.
The torrential rain played its part in today’s race day, not only affecting second practice but seeing qualifying cancelled for the first time in Formula E’s history. This meant that the grid was set using the results of free practice two, placing Stoffel and Jake Hughes in P14 and P15 respectively.
The rain had not disappeared prior to the start of the race, with a lot of standing water still on the track. This led to the decision that the race would be started behind the Safety Car, racing at a slower speed to help clear the water that remained on track. Aided by the fact rain had stopped falling due to delaying the start of the race by ten minutes, the grid took to their positions for a standing start four laps into the race.
Jake and Stoffel handled the standing start well, fighting off the surrounding cars and rain spray to safely and successfully make it through the first corner. No positions were gained, Jake losing a few and picking up some minimal front wing damage, but both cars continued into the race.
The Maserati MSG Racing duo started to look to when best to take their Pit Boost. Opting for a bold strategy, Stoffel pitted first in what would become the moment that won him the Tokyo E-Prix.
As Stoffel rejoined the race, Max Guenther’s DS PENSKE came to a halt on track, the position of the car triggering a red flag. However, this meant that Stoffel had basically taken his Pit Boost for free, losing no time on the field, and would climb up the order without the need of risky manoeuvres as the rest of the competition came in to take their Pit Boosts.
Jake stayed with Stoffel, acting rear gunner, as the pair moved through the grid together in the perfect team strategy to make it to P3 and P4. Unfortunately, Jake still had to take his Pit Boost and couldn’t optimise on the same strategy as Stoffel. A failure with his Pit Boost lost him a lot of time and he fell back down the timing tower when he came in towards the final stages of the race. He rejoined P19 and 28 seconds off the closest car. Jake needed another incident to get him back in the race, whilst Stoffel needed the race to remain incident free to capitalise on his perfectly timed stop.
There was a moment of concern as the rain began to return and Stoffel was caught out, spinning on track. He managed to only lose five seconds of his 25 second lead to Nissan’s Oliver Rowland and continue with no real damage to the car despite having hit the wall. From there, Stoffel took no additional risks, backing off and just focusing on keeping the car on track as he drove to Maserati MSG Racing’s first victory of the season.
The team go again tomorrow, hoping to get a chance to show the potential of the Maserati Tipo Folgore in qualifying and to have both cars fighting up the front of the grid.
QUOTES
Jake Hughes, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “The biggest win today – aside from my teammate who I’m buzzing for – is the fact that we actually got a race on for the fans. There was a lot of today where it just looked like the rain was too much and we weren’t going to get to do any racing. To get a clean race was a job well done by the whole paddock. As for the race, a mega strategy by the team for Stoffel. It fell his way today but he still had to execute it, still had to get it to the chequered flag, so a fantastic job from him. We’ve had a difficult season so far; we haven’t had a lot of luck so it’s nice that we got a bit of luck and a good performance from Stoffel today with the win. My race was the complete opposite. Some damage early on which wasn’t the end of the world, but then we had a failure in the pit stop with the Pit Boost and I lost about 30 seconds. Then it’s basically game over. We go again tomorrow, hopefully get to complete a proper qualifying and can show the full potential of the Maserati Tipo Folgore.”
Stoffel Vandoorne, Driver, Maserati MSG Racing: “I forgot what it feels like to win! It feels weird because it’s a little bit unexpected, but at the same time I knew it was 100% possible. We had a very bold strategy: to spend so much energy in the beginning to open our pit window very early. Being able to be first into the pit lane and offset ourselves from the rest, which we managed to do. I love it when a plan comes really into play; every little thing that you discuss before the race actually happens. It’s very rare that it comes together like that in Formula E but today was one of those days. We execute a perfectly planned strategy. It was very ballsy! It made my life difficult at times; after the pit stop with such a low energy target and having to manage the battery of the car. There was a lot of communication between myself and Thibault, but he kept me very calm, managed to have good communication, kept me up to date with the gap behind to the other guys so I knew exactly how much I could back off and could do the saving that I needed to do.”
Cyril Blais, Team Principal, Maserati MSG Racing: “What an amazing result! We wanted to be a bit aggressive in this race because we couldn’t do qualifying. Not being able to show our pace, we started a bit further back than expected and knew we would need to try something different. The guys came up with a plan and so we tried a positive strategy on both cars to cover a variety of options. There was a bit of luck, and we needed it to get this great result, but it doesn’t change the fact that the team thought about all the outcomes, covered all the options. We felt like if there was an opportunity to get big points, we would be there to grab it and that’s exactly what happened. The execution was faultless. We are very happy with that win.
“It’s a team victory. For Jake, unfortunately the race didn’t fall the way we wanted. He switched focus to play rear gunner for Stoffel, let him pass when he had to. It was the perfect team game, so this victory is a team victory. I want to thank both drivers; Jake was a big part of it.
“Thanks to everyone – a job well done. We’ll celebrate the moment, but then we focus straight back to tomorrow. There’s still some work to do. Today luck was on our side but tomorrow I want to win on pure pace.”
Maria Conti, Head of Maserati Corse: “What an unpredictable and incredible day! Winning in Tokyo again after last year’s triumph is an amazing feeling! This street circuit is extremely fascinating and technical, made even more unpredictable by the rain and the Pit Boost. We experienced unforgettable emotions in the heart of one of the most iconic cities in the world, surrounded by an extremely welcoming audience, which made the day wonderful. Today, we have written another memorable chapter to Maserati’s almost 100 years of history in motorsport. The team’s work, the perfect strategy and Stoffel’s determination made the difference. Today’s result drives us ahead into a significant second half of the season and we can’t wait to get back on the track tomorrow to battle to be one of the best.”
NUMBERS
Stoffel Vandoorne
Free Practice One // P5
Free Practice Two // P14
Qualifying // P14 [Cancelled due to rain. FP2 result used]
Race // P1
Positions Gained // 13
Fastest Lap // 1:24.625
Championship Position // P7 [44 points]
Jake Hughes
Free Practice One // P9
Free Practice Two // P15
Qualifying // P15 [Cancelled due to rain. FP2 result used]
Race // P19
Positions Gained // -4
Fastest Lap // 1:24.412
Championship Position // P14 [27 points]
Maserati MSG Racing
Championship Position // P6 [71 points]
