Tom Blomqvist, driving the #27 MS&AD Andretti ATEC-003, finished eighth in his first Formula E race. His teammate, António Félix da Costa, finished nineteenth. The race, the third round in the 2017-2018 season for the all-electric formula-car series, was run in Marrakesh, Morocco, on January 13.
Blomqvist brushed the wall in qualifying, but recovered to secure the twelfth position on the grid. Félix da Costa crashed out of qualifying and started nineteenth.
Blomqvist moved up to tenth after two laps of racing. Félix da Costa fought his way through the pack, overtaking Blomqvist on lap fourteen. He pitted from tenth for the car change on lap seventeen, but unfortunately for him a full-course yellow was announced just after he pitted. Those who pitted after Félix da Costa gained an advantage by pitting under yellow; he returned to the track in fourteenth, and went on to finish there. Blomqvist pitted a lap later and returned to the track in the tenth position. He moved up to ninth at the end of the race, and was promoted to eighth afterward because Venturi’s Maro Engel, who finished seventh on the track, received a post-race penalty for causing a collision. The overall win went to Felix Rosenqvist, who drives for Mahindra Racing. It was his second win of the season.
Blomqvist said, “The race was a bit of an eye opener. I was also a bit lucky to finish in eighth position in the end. My focus was on getting some laps under my belt because I literally had no idea what to expect. I had tested and worked in the simulator, but it is very different in the race environment. There is definitely some work that needs to be done on my side to try and figure out how to better manage the race. It is so different from what I have done in the past, and every time I get in the car it will get better and I will learn more and more. I will work on my energy management and the communication with the engineers. There are so many things that you really need to be on top of here in Formula E. I have got some way to go but we can be very happy with eighth place in my first race.”
Formula E runs again in Santiago, Chile on February 3, and then runs in Mexico City on March 3. The series returns to the streets of Brooklyn, New York for a double header on July 14 and 15.
