• Third podium in three races for Mahindra Racing in Season 5
• Pascal Werhlein converted a front row start into his maiden Formula E podium, bringing the M5Electro home in 2nd
• Jérôme D’Ambrosio gained 10 places to finish 10th after starting 20th
• Mahindra Racing second in the Team’s Championship while Jérôme is second in the Driver's battle

26 JANUARY 2019, SANTIAGO, CHILE – Round three of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship took place in Santiago, Chile today. In the scorching Santiago heat, where air temperatures were the hottest on record and track temperatures reached 46 degrees, Mahindra Racing's Pascal Wehrlein kept his cool as he brought his M5Electro home second to secure his maiden Formula E podium on only his second ever outing.

Pascal dialled into the new Santiago E-Prix street circuit at O'Higgins Parque from the offset, setting the second fastest time in first practice this morning and fifth in second practice. He was fastest in group qualifying with a blistering lap, securing his first Super Pole appearance, in which he qualified second. Starting from the front row alongside Sebastien Buemi, Pascal maintained position in the opening laps of the race and then moved into third on lap 10 behind Sam Bird. He regained second on lap 21 when Sebastien Buemi made a mistake and hit the wall. He put a huge amount of pressure on leader Sam Bird in the closing laps and crossed the line in a strong second place to secure 18 championship points and get his campaign off the ground.

Jérôme finished in the top ten in both of the morning practice sessions but an issue in the first sector of his qualifying lap saw him forced to start the race from the tenth row of the grid in 20th. An eventful race saw Jerome able to make several overtakes and capitalise on other on-track incidents to steadily pick his way through the field and move up the order over the 45 minutes. He crossed the line in tenth, an impressive ten places higher than his starting spot and collected the final championship point.

In the championships, Mahindra Racing remains second in the Team’s battle, while Jerome is now second in the Driver's fight, two points behind Sam Bird. Pascal now has his points account open and is sitting ninth in the standings.

The fourth round of the 2018/19 ABB FIA Formula E Championship takes place on Saturday 16 February at the Autodromo Hernandez Rodriguez in Mexico City.

PASCAL WEHRLEIN
"What a great start for me in Formula E. The potential was already there at the last race but, unfortunately, I couldn’t show it. This time there was even the potential for a win; it's just unfortunate we had some issues at the end which meant I had to slow down a lot. My emotions were mixed directly at the end of the race as I thought we could have taken the win and I wanted that win very badly but, with some time to reflect, I'm really happy and I'm delighted for everyone in the team. The whole team is doing a fantastic job, the car is feeling great and these first races show how competitive we are."

JÉRÔME D’AMBROSIO
"The race was an eventful one. Coming back like we did and finishing in the points was a good thing. I'm happy to be in the points – as we would always say, if you want to fight for a championship you need to finish on the podium on a good day and if you have a bad day you still need to score points which is what we did. It's not easy to be starting always in Group 1 in qualifying but that’s the position when you lead the championship. There’s a couple of things we need to work on but it's amazing for the team that out of three races we have been on the podium every time. It shows that we are consistently putting it together and we’ll aim for a double podium in Mexico."

DILBAGH GILL, TEAM PRINCIPAL
"I'm delighted to be on the podium for the third consecutive time in the three races we've had so far this season. We haven't had the best of luck in South America but, today, our fortunes turned around. Pascal is incredibly talented, managing both energy usage and tough conditions in the extreme temperatures we had, and I'm happy that he finished on the podium in only his second race. It was a tough day for Jérôme, but he did a great job to bring the M5Electro home in the points after a difficult qualifying session. Our aim in Mexico is to get a pair of strong results – bring it on."

MAHINDRA RACING
Mahindra Racing is one of ten founding teams – and the only Indian team – to compete in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, the world's first all-electric racing series. Mahindra Racing has impressive credentials; after scoring it's breakthrough win at the Berlin E-Prix in 2017, the squad now has four race victories to it’s name in addition to 18 podiums,and six pole positions since season one. After four seasons with the first generation race car, all eyes now turn to season five. Mahindra Racing has high ambitions with the Gen2 M5Electro, a technical innovation that will see the car last the duration of a race as Formula E continues to push the limits of technology and electrification.

ABB FIA FORMULA E CHAMPIONSHIP
The ABB FIA Formula E Championship is the world's first fully-electric single-seater racing series, competing on the streets against the backdrop of some of the most iconic cities - including Hong Kong, Marrakesh, Paris, Berlin, New York and Montreal. The championship represents a vision for the future of the motor industry, serving as a platform to showcase the latest innovations in electric vehicle technology and alternative energy solutions. Future seasons will see the regulations open up further allowing manufacturers to focus on the development of motor and battery components, which in turn will filter down to everyday contemporary electric road vehicles.

MAHINDRA GROUP
The Mahindra Group is a USD 20.7 billion federation of companies that enables people to rise through innovative mobility solutions, driving rural prosperity, enhancing urban living, nurturing new businesses and fostering communities. It has a leadership position in utility vehicles, information technology, financial services and vacation ownership in India and is the world's largest tractor company, by volume. It also enjoys a strong presence in agribusiness, components, commercial vehicles, speedboats, consulting services, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, steel, aerospace, defence and two wheelers. Headquartered in India, Mahindra employs over 240,000 people across 100 countries. Learn more about Mahindra at www.mahindra.com

Supporting Mahindra Racing is Tech Mahindra which was recently ranked in 15th on the Forbes’ Digital 100 list – the highest-ranked non-US company to feature. After receiving previous accolades for its sustainability vision, Tech Mahindra was honoured for the fourth consecutive year as a leader in the 2018 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).

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