António Félix da Costa piloted the #28 MS&AD Andretti ATEC-003 to a seventh-place finish in the Formula E race in Mexico City in March. His teammate, Tom Blomqvist, finished fifteenth. The Mexico City race was run on a 2.093-km road course at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
For the first time since the Buenos Aires race in season two Félix da Costa was quick enough to get into the Super Pole qualifying session for the top five positions. He qualified second but was demoted to fourth because his car was found to be underweight after the Super Pole session. Blomqvist started eighteenth on the twenty-car grid. Felix Rosenqvist took the pole for Mahindra.
Félix da Costa fell back early in the race, but he remained in the top ten. Rosenqvist led from the pole, but dropped out after an electrical problem forced him to restart his car twice. Oliver Turvey, racing for NextEV NIO, took the lead, but Audi’s Daniel Abt took over after a quick pit stop and went on to win.
Félix da Costa, who was eighth after his pit stop, moved up to seventh after Techeeta’s Andre Lotterer lost several positions because of a drive-through penalty.
After the race, Félix da Costa said, “We take a lot of positives from today. The pace was really good all day. We made it into Super Pole and had a strong qualifying. Our performance in the race was a bit disappointing; we will look into this. However, we are making massive steps as a team. I’m looking forward to the coming races. We have the potential to score points every weekend and are definitely working in the right direction.”
The series runs again in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, on March 17. BMW’s new powertrain for the next-generation Andretti Formula E car will be tested on track for the first time in late March.