Maserati MSG Racing secured victory at the 2024 Tokyo E-Prix, with Maximilian Günther winning the FIA Formula E World Championship’s inaugural race in Japan.
Max, who entered the weekend in good form after displaying a strong recovery drive in São Paulo two weeks earlier, showed competitive pace throughout practice and placed third in FP1 and FP2.
Come qualifying, the 26-year-old continued to extract his performance to maximum effect, and by setting the fastest time in Group B, secured his place in the duel stages.
By defeating Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein in the Quarter-Finals, Max went up against Sergio Sette Camara in the penultimate stage but beat the ERT driver in his head-to-head to compete in the Final.
In the Final, Max displayed a fighting performance against Oliver Rowland but missed out on pole position by only 0.021 seconds to start second. His team-mate, Jehan Daruvala, meanwhile, qualified 17th for the fifth race of his Formula E career.
Starting on the dirty side of the circuit, Max unfortunately lost second place off the line to Edoardo Mortara, while Jehan executed a clean, calculated, and opportunistic opening lap to make up ground.
As the race evolved, Max quickly settled into a rhythm but leveraged his Attack Mode strategy to his advantage, overcutting both Mortara and Rowland to rise to the lead before taking his first activation on lap 14.
Max rejoined the race in third, but with the benefit of extra power, overtook Mortara on track and set out to chase after Rowland, although a Safety Car on lap 20 – deployed for debris – neutralised the race until lap 22.
After resuming his pursuit for the lead after the restart, Max staged a crucial overtake on Rowland on lap 25 and built a big enough gap over the Briton to take his final Attack Mode without sacrificing track position.
Despite facing mounting pressure in the closing stages, Max held the lead until the chequered flag to secure the fifth victory of his Formula E career and the Maserati brand’s second since joining the fully-electric category in Season 9.
After making a strong start, team-mate Jehan unfortunately sustained damage early in the race after being hit by Jean-Eric Vergne in Turn One and finished 18th.
With 48 points scored this season, Max holds fifth in the World Drivers’ Championship, while Maserati MSG Racing holds seventh in the Teams’ Standings, overtaking reigning champions Envision Racing.
Formula E’s 10th season will resume on 13-14 April 2024, for the inaugural Misano E-Prix – the Trident’s home race in Italy.
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