Coming into Round No. 5 of the virtual FIA ABB Formula E Series event, BMW i Andretti Formula E’s team were hoping for a better turnaround than last weeks event after failing to the finish the race at the virtual Hong Kong.
Speaking of the Berlin race track (Tempelhof Airport), Maximilian Günther was heading into his home racetrack and was seeking to provide a respectable finish in front of his fans. Günther, qualified in the fifth position with a time of 1:09.596, as qualifying was held prior the virtual race.
When the race went green, Günther managed track position and running inside the top-10. However, Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein and the Andretti’s Günther collided with each other. Due to the incident, Günther was sent into the wall and wounded up spinning out. The Andretti driver fell back to eighth in the running order, but was able to gain one more position in the final results, as the German native ended up finishing seventh at his home racetrack.
For Günther, it was all he could savage and looks forward to the next event.
“After qualifying and the start here, I was actually in a good position to reach the podium, but in my opinion it was an overly harsh action that cost me the race. My car nearly overturned after the collision with Pascal Wehrlein and it was severely damaged. Finishing seventh and scoring some championship points was the best I could do in that situation. It was damage limitation.”
His teammate, Alexander Sims, started 22nd after qualifying. Though, Sims had a difficult time working his way up through the field as track position proved to be key. The English native picked off several positions before the virtual event ended, but could not finish much higher than 15th as Sims ran out of time.
“It was nice to drive in Berlin this time. I felt more at home here than on other circuits and I had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, my speed is still not that good but my driving was more consistent this time and I improved by a few places. Just like in Hong Kong recently, I struggled again with some of the settings on my simulator. That is another consequence of my lack of experience but I think I’ll have it under control for the next race.“
Meanwhile, in the Challenge Series, team driver Kevin Siggy picked up the victory after dominating the race and leading all 15-laps.
