Mixed Weather Gives Mixed Results in Tokyo

Maximilian had been on for a very good weekend in Tokyo, with top five finishes possible through clever strategy and tactics. Unfortunately, technical failures and red flag timing took away those big scoring chances, despite a fairly flawless weekend.

The pace was competitive in the practice sessions, and already DS PENSKE and Maximilian knew this was a weekend they could optimise. He missed out on making it to the Qualifying Duels by a fraction of a second, but starting in the top ten Maximilian knew they could have a strong race from there, eyeing his first big points haul of the season.

He raced well, using the strategy and tactics for the first night race around the streets of Tokyo to put himself in a competitive position when the Pit Boost window opened. Running a net P4, it was all about taking the one Attack Mode at the right time and using the extra pace to secure his top four finish and a brilliantly fought for twelve points.

Luck wasn’t on Maximilian’s side this weekend, and in the final stage of the race his steering wheel has a complete shutdown. With Formula E drivers using their steering wheel for data relay and energy management back to the team in the garage, this was a major issue. No longer aware of how much energy he had left and if he was driving in a way that meant he would make it to the chequered flag, Maximilian did incredibly to get his DS E-TENSE across the line and complete the race. Sadly with no points, but considering he was driving blind for the last few laps of the race it was an impressive feat.

Sunday brought the rain and, with it, the cancelation of FP3. This meant that everyone went into qualifying with a bit of unknown, and with the weather still hanging in the air it was a coin toss on whether to go for a dry set up – with the track expected to dry through the race – or a wet one to capitalise on the conditions that were actively on the track.

Maximilian and DS PENSKE opted to go for dry set up tyre pressures, meaning a disadvantage at the start of the Race but played into their strategy for the later stage of the race. Starting P15, Maximilian knew he had the work to do in the opening phase of the race, but also knew that as the track dried conditions would come to him. And that was where he could be most affective with the strong pace of the DS PENSKE this weekend.

The strategy played out perfectly, with the top order bunching up and going into energy management towards the end of the race, where Maximilian still had his eight minutes of Attack Mode and the dryer conditions that favoured his set up. He climbed from P17 to P9 in a very short space of time, and was eyeing a top six finish when he activated his final four minutes of Attack with five laps to go.

An incident behind him saw the red flag come out, stealing his final two minutes of Attack Mode. With no additional power boost and only one lap of green flag racing when the race restarted, Maximilian couldn’t take those final few places he had his sights set on, having to settle with P10 on the track, P9 after a penalty was applied to a competitor.

The final race of Season 12 is next, taking place at London. With the competitive pace the DS E-TENSE FE25 has shown the last few races, even if it hasn’t been able to convert that potential into points, Maximilian will have confidence he has the opportunity to finish the season on a high.

RESULTS

Free Practice 1 – P2, 1:13.332

Free Practice 2 – P7, 1:13.015

Qualifying – P10 (Group B, P5, 1:13.960)

Race – P5

Free Practice 3 – Cancelled

Qualifying – P15 (Group B, P8, 1:14.865)

Race – P9

Championship Standing – P18 (23 points)

MAXIMILIAN GÜNTHER:

“I really enjoyed racing in Tokyo; it’s always special to race there. This weekend sadly it wasn’t meant to be for me as we couldn’t convert good strategy and execution into the big points finishes they should have been. A technical failure on Saturday saw me unable to convert what should have been a top five finish and the timing of the red flag on Sunday limited what I was able to achieve in the second race.

“Saturday was an amazing race, all the way up until the pit window – we were basically on for a top four finish. Had a good first half of the race, strategy great with the undercut, gained a lot of positions and was basically P4, P4 was our realistic result. Then unfortunately we had a steering wheel issue, the steering wheel didn’t work anymore, we didn’t have the energy management working anymore. No more beeps, no LEDs, no energy targets, basically completely blind. It was actually a miracle to finish the race at all, but the race was defined and destroyed by that. That was a big shame, a big missed opportunity. It would have been a strong race and a strong result for us.

“Sunday was more of a gamble with the tyre pressure. With the inclement weather, we decided to take a risk on dry weather tyre pressures, or close to dry weather pressures, looking at the rain clearing and that becoming the optimum set up as the day went on. Track, at the beginning of the race, was full wet, so the first stage of the race was really difficult. More about trying to hang on than actively making progress, hoping that as the track dried the pressures and track would come to us. Halfway through the race we started to be really fast, catching the leaders at a good rate. We knew the final stage of the race would be key to us and we took the Attacks as late as we could to optimise on the dryer track and the pressures we’d opted for. Did everything really well, everything correct, to be able to gain a lot of places in a short space of time; got from P17 to P9. With two and a half more laps remaining and in that perfect window for our set up I knew there were a few more laps to be gained, looking at a really strong points result. Unfortunately the red flag came out in the middle of my second Attack, losing me the pace advantage I had on those ahead of me who were in energy management at the time. Another big shame and very unlucky, but it is what it is – that’s racing sometimes. Still got some points, finished P9 in the end. The momentum wasn’t there for us on Sunday and Saturday was a real shame because he loss of points was completely out of my control, on the technical side.

“I have to mention that it was great to see Citroen performing so well on a weekend that was very challenging for all of us after hearing the sad news about Cyril. It was good to see them achieve something so great racing for Cyril, achieving this for Cyril. I would have loved to have had a great weekend myself and be able to honour Cyril in my own way, but this weekend it just wasn’t meant to be. It was nice to see him celebrated by his team with a hard-fought podium.

“One more round of Season 12 takes us to the season finale in London. I’ll be doing everything I can to end this very mixed season on a high, getting a good haul of points to take strong momentum into the season break. We know the potential is there with the DS-E-TENSE FE25 and we’re on the right track with strategy and execution in the race. Just need a few more things going our way and a little bit of luck to convert all that into a strong points finish, which I am hoping to do in London.”