A Race of Almosts for Maximilian Günther, Leaving Mexico City With Several Positives
The second round of the 2025/26 FIA ABB Formula E Championship took place on the Hermanos Rodrigues Circuit in Mexico City. The DS PENSKE Formula E Team looked strong through qualifying, and Maximilian was looking good to fight at the front, potentially for podium positions.
Maximilian started on the back foot when his Group Qualifying session saw him missing out from progressing to the duels by just a tenth of a second. The closeness of the competitive order was really on show during qualifying and set up the race to be an exciting one.
His narrow miss from the duels saw Maximilian line up still a useful ninth on the grid, and starting within the top ten gave him a great chance to finish in the points.
He started very well, moving up three places at the start, putting pressure on the top five and looking for a way to add more points to his championship campaign, displaying strong consistent pace in the first half of the race.
But the Safety Car was deployed just at the wrong moment and he found himself in a tight pack of drivers on different strategies. An unfortunate accident occurred on lap 17 when two cars touched and pitched a totally innocent Maximilian off, where he was then struck by another car, resulting in a lot of damage to the DS PENSKE E-TENSE FE25.
It was a valiant drive and a good effort but ultimately was not rewarded, as Maximilan could finish no higher than 12th with a significantly damaged car. He and the team will regroup in the few weeks ahead of the next race so they can hit the ground running when they get to Florida, for the first ever Formula E race at the legendary Hard Rock Stadium venue in the heart of downtown Miami.
RESULTS
Free Practice 1 – P4, 1:06.145
Free Practice 2 – P8, 1:05.488
Qualifying – P9 (Group B, P5, 1:06.758)
Race – P12
Championship Standing – P8 (8 points)
MAXIMILIAN GÜNTHER:
“I had a very good and competitive feeling, good pace and a strong car balance for all the build-up to the race. I think we’ve worked really well over the over the Christmas break, and we arrived here in good shape, which is something that is very promising for the rest of the year, and so I’m happy about that.
“Then the race itself, I think we did a lot of things right. I had a great start moving forward, some good energy management and strong pace. We were in a good position to fight for a top six result today.
“Then we just got super unlucky, I got spun around and that was it. T race was, was pretty much over at this point with damage and I was fortunate to get to the end. In Formula E this can happen. But we keep positive because apart from the result it was a good weekend in Mexico, and we move on to Miami in three weeks’ time.”