A quick turnaround for the Mahindra Racing Formula E Team will see them back out in action this coming weekend in South America as the FIA Formula E Championship moves to the other side of the world for the third round of the season. Leaving the rain and humidity of Malaysia behind the four racing cars have made their way to Uruguay where they will be met by Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna who will next be seen racing beach side around the streets of Punta del Este.
The third round of the season will be a change of pace for the teams who had the heavy afternoon rain to deal with in Malaysia. This resulted in the entire weekend schedule being shuffled to allow time to miss the downpours. However no such precautions should be necessary in the popular beach resort of Punta del Este and the normal weekend schedule will resume with two free practice sessions in the morning, followed by a quick fire group qualifying session and a hard fought afternoon race.
The previous round in Putrajaya, Malaysia was a mixed affair for the Mahindra Racing drivers; Chandhok once again picked up some solid points during his race however Senna retired on the final lap after hitting the wall while chasing hard for a podium position. With both Chandhok and Senna looking to score their first podium in the series, the racing in Uruguay is likely to provide another thrilling spectacle.
The Punta del Este circuit looks to be an exciting prospect for the drivers with its beach front location and mixture of fast corners coupled with tricky bends – 20 in total. However the field will have to prepare themselves for the tight 2.8km circuit and may have the added challenge of sand, instead of marbles, on track.
Looking ahead to the challenge, Karun Chandhok said, ‘The first two rounds have been reasonably good for me. We picked up a decent haul of points even though aspects of the race went against us in Malaysia and really a podium should have been on the cards.
‘Once again I’ll be out on track early in the weekend with the FIA to check out certain aspects of the circuit however upon first look it seems as though it’s going to be a narrower circuit with longer straights. The grip level is going to be tricky, especially so close to the beach with the sand kicked up. But overall we know we have a fast car, and now we need to capitalise on this in Punta del Este and aim for that podium. The teams in Bangalore and England have been hard at work and we should be in with a chance again in Punta.’
Bruno Senna added, ‘Thankfully it’s been a short gap between races; now we’re ready for Uruguay and looking ahead to putting the opening two races of the season behind us. We missed out on some strong points in Malaysia which was a shame because quite clearly we were quick however I wasn’t able to get the result I wanted. We move to the next round with the aim of getting those points and results on the board. Once again, it’s difficult to judge the track until we’re there so we’ll be heading out early for our track walk and getting to grips with what looks like another interesting circuit.
‘Uruguay will also be a special race for me because it’s the closest that the championship will race to my home of Brazil so I have a lot of my family coming to the race and it is quite exciting to have their full support.’