Guenther "over the moon" after Maserati's maiden Formula E win in Jakarta
Maximilian Guenther said he was “over the moon” after scoring Maserati MSG's first Formula E victory in the Jakarta E-Prix.
Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images
The Stellantis brand had suffered a woeful start to the 2023 FE season after taking over the team from Venturi, with a lack of pace compounded by mistakes on the part of Guenther and particularly team-mate Edoardo Mortara.
But Maserati started to turn its fortunes around from Berlin onwards, with Jakarta confirming the progress team has made as Guenther outduelled Andretti’s Jake Dennis in the second part of the double header to claim an emphatic win.
It was Maserati's first victory in any world championship race since Juan Manuel Fangio's Formula 1 success in the 1957 German GP, as well as the first for Guenther since his triumph 2021 New York E-Prix with BMW.
“I'm absolutely over the moon and so proud about this achievement today,” said Guenther. “The season hasn't been as easy, especially the start of it and we really kept believing in us, working hard, working in a good direction and clearly the momentum of our season has changed a few weekends ago.
“Berlin was great and we scored good points in the last few races and yeah now the top two poles here, one win and another podium is huge. Just extremely happy.”
Maximilian Gunther, Maserati Racing, Maserati Tipo Folgore, Jake Dennis, Andretti Autosport, Porsche 99 X Electric Gen3, Mitch Evans, Jaguar Racing , Jaguar I-TYPE 6 at the start
Photo by: Gareth Harford / Motorsport Images
Guenther was unbeaten over a single lap in Indonesia, topping all three practice sessions as well both qualifying sessions in his DS-powered Maserati car.
A relative lack of efficiency and long run pace meant he slipped to third in the opening race of the weekend, behind Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein and Andretti's Jake Dennis, but Guenther bounced back on Sunday to add a fourth career win to his tally.
The German driver slipped behind Dennis during the first attack mode cycle, but surged to the front once again after overcutting the British driver at the next round of activations en route to a 2.8s win margin.
“It's great for the dynamic of the team,” said Guenther. “Today the race was pretty perfect.
“Right from the beginning we managed well, tried to save good energy compared to guys around us and we chose the right moment to go and attack.
“Saturday was not as easy and we didn't have enough to beat the two guys in front of us but clearly today was our day.”
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