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![]() The Hyderabad E-Prix debuted in 2023 | ||
Race Information | ||
Date | 11 February 2023[1] | |
E-Prix No. | 104 (4 of 2022/23) | |
Official Name | 2023 Greenko Hyderabad E-Prix[2] | |
Location | ![]() Hyderabad, Telangana, India | |
Format | 100 km / 60 min | |
Lap length | 2.835 km (1.762 mi) | |
Distance | 33 laps / 95.676 km (59.450 mi) | |
Qualifying Result | ||
Pole Sitter | ![]() | |
Team | ![]() | |
Time | 1:13.228 (139.372 km/h) | |
Fastest Lap | ||
Driver | ![]() | |
Team | ![]() | |
Fastest Lap | 1:14.698 on lap 28 | |
ePrix Result | ||
First | Second | Third |
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Winner Team | ![]() | |
Time | 46:01.099 (124.745 km/h) | |
ePrix Guide | ||
Previous | Next | |
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The 2023 Hyderabad E-Prix, officially known as the 2023 Greenko Hyderabad E-Prix, was the fourth race of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, held at the Hyderabad Street Circuit in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, on 11 February 2023.[1][2] The race would be the first E-Prix to be held in both Hyderabad and India, and would serve as the first FIA World Championship level event to be held in India since the 2013 Indian Grand Prix.
Qualifying had seen several controversial decisions regarding track limits, a novelty in FE until that point, although in a well mannered Final duel it was Mitch Evans who scored pole, defeating Jean-Éric Vergne by just 0.021s.[3] Indeed, the novel first chicane at Hyderabad, which did not feature a wall tight to the apex of turn two, would see numerous drivers have lap-times deleted for exceeding track limits, and even resulted in Vergne progressing through to the Final without facing a duel in the Semis and even getting a de facto bye in the Quarters, with Sam Bird having had his time in their quarter final deleted, before both Edoardo Mortara and René Rast both failed to set a valid time in their quarter final to leave Vergne without a semi final opponent.[3]
Into the race itself and Evans made a strong getaway to secure the lead when the lights went out, aggressively cutting across the nose of Vergne to deny the Frenchman the chance of a lunge into the first corner of the race, the hairpin at turn three.[4] Behind Sébastien Buemi and Sacha Fenestraz squabbled over third, the Swiss pilot coming out on top, while title protagonists Jake Dennis and Pascal Wehrlein both slid down into the back of the midfield, having both failed to qualify inside the top ten.[4]
The race quickly settled, although Mortara was an early victim of the dusty conditions at turn three, slamming into Nick Cassidy on lap three when fighting for sixth with Sam Bird to remove the front wing from his Maserati.[4] He eventually limped into the pits for repairs, as on track Evans worked to build an energy advantage over the rest of the field, meaning Vergne and Buemi continued to loom large in his mirrors.[4]
Lap seven and Evans made the curious decision to take Attack Mode before any of the major pretenders for victory, dumping him back behind Fenestraz in the same moment that Buemi lunged the #16 Envision-Jaguar inside of Vergne, taking over the lead.[4] A lap later, and with Evans having lost time getting back ahead of Fenestraz, Buemi would secure a net second when he darted through the AM zone and rejoined behind Vergne and ahead of the factory Jaguar, with Vergne also managing to remain ahead of Evans when he too armed the boost on lap ten.[4]
Evans and Jaguar's day was about to get even worse, as the New Zealander, Maximilian Günther and Fenestraz became collateral damage in Bird's failed attempt to slither the #10 Jaguar past Fenestraz at the hairpin on lap thirteen.[4] Bird had sent a lunge at Fenestraz having got onto the tail of the lead pack only to hit the dust and go skating into the rear-right of the sister car of Evans, just as the #9 Jaguar turned through the apex of the corner.[4] Günther and Fenestraz ended up stuck behind the now backwards facing Evans as he slid to a stop on the outside of the corner, while Bird was left with front wing damage and ardent apologies to the Jaguar squad.[4]
The incident was quickly cleared, Evans limping around to retire with damage to the right-rear corner, Bird stopping for repairs, and both Günther and Fenestraz plummeting to the back of the field through no fault of their own.[4] All of that had left Buemi leading from Vergne, Cassidy in third and rapidly closing on the lead duo, and Dennis remarkably in fourth having only just got back into the top ten before the incident at the hairpin.[4]
The second AM round saw Vergne, Cassidy and Dennis all get ahead of Buemi, although Buemi and Dennis would later squabble and drop off the back of Cassidy, who had suddenly leapt to second and with a huge 3% energy advantage over Vergne.[4] Those fights would rumble, without serious attempts to resolve them, until lap twenty-three when Jake Hughes found the wall at turn four, reportedly due to the mirror coming off of his car and jamming itself behind his steering wheel.[4]
After three laps the race resumed with Vergne escaping a little from Cassidy and Buemi, while Dennis was about to be removed from the race by an overly enthusiastic René Rast, who slammed into the back of the #27 Avalanche Andretti, causing a puncture.[4] Oliver Rowland now found himself in fourth ahead of António Félix da Costa, while Wehrlein had sneaked up to seventh behind Stoffel Vandoorne amid the chaos, and with a similar energy advantage over the rest as Cassidy had.[4]
The final laps were all about whether Vergne could hold on, with the Frenchman entering the final phase of the race with a 4% deficit to Cassidy, who was hounding the back of the #25 DS Penske at every opportunity, although Vergne held firm.[4] Entering the final tour and Vergne had just under 2% battery left to try and completed the final lap and keep Cassidy at bay, who knew he could push as hard as he liked and still make it to the chequered flag.[4]
Yet there would be no change to the lead on the final tour, with Vergne able to block Cassidy successfully into turn three, before easing through the rest of the lap to secure his first victory in two seasons ahead of the New Zealander.[4] Buemi crossed the line in third but was denied a podium spot after being slapped with a penalty for power over-use, handing third to da Costa after Rowland too had been penalised, his the result of a time penalty due to track-limits.[4] A similar fate befell Vandoorne, handing fourth to Wehrlein, with Sérgio Sette Câmara also benefitting to claim a shock fifth place for NIO ahead of Rowland, Norman Nato secured the bonus point for fastest lap in seventh ahead of Vandoorne, while André Lotterer and Mortara secured the final points.[4]
Background[]
Two weeks after the double header in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, the 2022/23 Formula E field found itself in a brand new location for the series, on the coast of the Hussain Sagar lake.[1] The Indian city of Hyderabad in Telangana would play host to the fourth race of the ninth FE campaign, with a circuit carved on the shore of the artificial lake staging what would be both Hyderabad and India's first ever E-Prix, after several years of rumours about the series making the trip to India.[1] The circuit that FE would use had been constructed specifically for the series, although the circuit was to remain a semi-permanent fixture of Hyderabad to host other events, including rounds of the Indian Racing League which had been used to test the venue in December 2022.[5]
Purring Porsches[]
Victory for the second race in succession had left Pascal Wehrlein with the lead of the Championship as the Series left Diriyah, the German pilot having moved onto 68 points after two wins and a second place. That meant that Wehrlein held a six point lead over early pace setter Jake Dennis, who had one win and two second places to his name from the opening three races, before a huge 31 point gap separated him from third placed Sébastien Buemi. The Swiss racer was then three ahead of Sam Bird, Jake Hughes had continued his strong start to his FE career and risen to fifth, while Sacha Fenestraz, Edoardo Mortara and Dan Ticktum had all added their names to the scoresheet.
In the Teams' Championship it was a near perfect picture for Porsche, as their customers Avalanche Andretti and factory team TAG Heuer Porsche headed the field by a healthy margin after the opening trio of races. However, it was customers Andretti who led overall on 76 points, two ahead of the factory squad, while McLaren led the anti-Porsche charge from third on 53. Envision Racing made it three customer teams in the top four in fourth, two ahead of their suppliers Jaguar Racing, while Nissan, Maserati and NIO 333 Racing had all secured their first points of the campaign.
Entry List[]
The full entry list for the 2023 Hyderabad E-Prix is displayed below:
Practice[]
FP1[]
FP2[]
Qualifying[]
Qualifying for the 2023 Hyderabad E-Prix would be conducted according to the knockout format, introduced ahead of season eight.[7] The field would be split into two groups of eleven drivers, based on Championship position, with each group then getting ten minutes on track to complete as many laps as they wished at 300 kW.[7] The fastest eight overall would then proceed to the knockout phase, now running at the maximum 350 kW qualifying mode, with the fastest from group A against the fourth fastest from group A and so on, until four drivers were left.[7]
Those four would move on to the Semi-Final, with the winner of A1/A4 taking on the victor of A2/A3, while the triumphant driver of B3/B2 would take on B4/B1's winner.[7] The winners from those duels would then go into the final, with the winner of that duel taking pole, while the runner-up would start from second, before any grid penalties were applied.[7]
Group A[]
Group B[]
Knockouts[]
Quarter Finals[]
Semi Finals[]
Final[]
Post Qualifying[]
The final qualifying result for the 2023 Hyderabad E-Prix are outlined below:
2023 Hyderabad E-Prix Qualifying Results | |||||||
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Final | |||||||
Heat | Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Grid |
I | Win | 9 | ![]() |
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1:13.228 | — | 1 |
Lose | 25 | ![]() |
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1:13.249 | +0.021s | 2 | |
Semi-Finals | |||||||
Heat | Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Grid |
I | Win | 9 | ![]() |
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1:13.250 | — | F |
Lose | 16 | ![]() |
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1:13.533 | +0.283s | 3 | |
II* | Win | 25 | ![]() |
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1:13.472 | — | F |
Lose | — | ||||||
Quarter Finals | |||||||
Heat | Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Grid |
QF 1 | Win | 16 | ![]() |
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1:13.599 | — | SF |
NC† | 23 | ![]() |
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4 | |||
QF 2 | Win | 9 | ![]() |
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1:13.526 | — | SF |
NC† | 7 | ![]() |
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5 | |||
QF 3 | Win | 25 | ![]() |
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1:13.503 | — | SF |
NC† | 10 | ![]() |
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6 | |||
QF 4* | NC† | 48 | ![]() |
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7 | ||
NC† | 58 | ![]() |
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8 |
Group Stage | |||||||
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Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Time | Gap | Grid | Group |
1st | 58 | ![]() |
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1:14.091 | — | QF 4 | GB |
2nd | 25 | ![]() |
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1:14.095 | +0.004s | QF 3 | GB |
3rd | 10 | ![]() |
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1:14.187 | +0.096s | QF 3 | GB |
4th | 9 | ![]() |
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1:14.194 | +0.103s | QF 2 | GA |
5th | 23 | ![]() |
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1:14.204 | +0.113s | QF 1 | GA |
6th | 48 | ![]() |
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1:14.233 | +0.142s | QF 4 | GB |
7th | 37 | ![]() |
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1:14.234 | +0.143s | 9 | GB |
8th | 27 | ![]() |
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1:14.377 | +0.286s | 11 | GB |
9th | 17 | ![]() |
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1:14.420 | +0.329s | 14 | GB |
10th | 16 | ![]() |
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1:14.503 | +0.412s | QF 1 | GA |
11th | 7 | ![]() |
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1:14.518 | +0.427s | QF 2 | GA |
12th | 33 | ![]() |
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1:14.539 | +0.448s | 16 | GB |
13th | 51 | ![]() |
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1:14.549 | +0.458s | 18 | GB |
14th‡ | 94 | ![]() |
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1:14.663 | +0.572s | 12‡ | GA |
15th | 8 | ![]() |
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1:14.721 | +0.630s | 10 | GA |
16th | 13 | ![]() |
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1:14.732 | +0.641s | 13 | GA |
17th | 3 | ![]() |
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1:14.756 | +0.665s | 15 | GA |
18th | 36 | ![]() |
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1:14.818 | +0.727s | 20 | GB |
19th | 1 | ![]() |
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1:14.823 | +0.732s | 17 | GA |
20th | 11 | ![]() |
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1:14.917 | +0.826s | 19 | GA |
21st | 5 | ![]() |
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1:15.118 | +1.027s | 21 | GA |
22nd | 4 | ![]() |
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1:15.173 | +1.082s | 22 | GB |
Group A 110% Time: 1:21.613[8] | |||||||
Group B 110% Time: 1:21.500[8] | |||||||
Source:[8] |
- * As a result of neither Mortara nor Rast progressing from QF 4, there was no second driver in SF 2.[3]
- † Fenestraz, Günther, Bird, Mortara and Rast all had their lap times from the quarter finals deleted due to exceeding track limits at turn one/two.[9][10][11][12][13]
- ‡ Wehrlein served a three place grid penalty due to changing components between practice and qualifying.[14]
Race[]
Report[]
Result[]
The final classification of the 2023 Hyderabad E-Prix is displayed below, with the fastest lap setter indicated in italics, and the pole sitter shown in bold:
2023 Hyderabad E-Prix Race Result | |||||||
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Pos. | No. | Name | Team | Laps | Race Time | Fastest lap | Pts. |
1st | 25 | ![]() |
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33 | 46:01.099 | 1:15.325 | 25 |
2nd | 37 | ![]() |
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33 | +0.400s | 1:15.053 | 18 |
3rd | 13 | ![]() |
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33 | +1.859s | 1:15.168 | 15 |
4th | 94 | ![]() |
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33 | +2.855s | 1:14.800 | 12 |
5th | 3 | ![]() |
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33 | +3.523s | 1:15.371 | 10 |
6th* | 8 | ![]() |
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33 | +7.138s | 1:15.199 | 8 |
7th | 17 | ![]() |
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33 | +7.318s | 1:14.698 | 7 |
8th* | 1 | ![]() |
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33 | +7.564s | 1:15.077 | 4 |
9th | 36 | ![]() |
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33 | +8.703s | 1:14.847 | 2 |
10th | 48 | ![]() |
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33 | +9.073s | 1:14.810 | 1 |
11th† | 51 | ![]() |
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33 | +10.622s | 1:14.656† | |
12th | 23 | ![]() |
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33 | +11.635s | 1:15.031 | |
13th* | 7 | ![]() |
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33 | +15.446s | 1:15.273 | |
14th* | 11 | ![]() |
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33 | +15.999s | 1:14.757 | |
15th‡ | 16 | ![]() |
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33 | +17.735s | 1:15.460 | |
16th* | 27 | ![]() |
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33 | +1:10.562 | 1:14.677 | |
Ret | 58 | ![]() |
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25 | Damage | 1:15.510 | |
Ret | 5 | ![]() |
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22 | Accident | 1:15.288 | |
Ret | 10 | ![]() |
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18 | Damage | 1:15.469 | |
Ret | 33 | ![]() |
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15 | Retired | 1:15.861 | |
Ret | 9 | ![]() |
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12 | Collision | 1:15.961 | 3 |
Ret | 4 | ![]() |
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9 | Retired | 1:17.047 | |
Source:[8] |
- * Rowland, Vandoorne, Günther, di Grassi and Dennis all served five second time penalties for multiple track limit breeches.[15][16][17][18][19]
- † Müller set the fastest lap of the race (1:14.656) but was ineligible to claim the bonus point as he failed to finish in the top ten.[8]
- ‡ Buemi was awarded a drive through penalty, converted to a seventeen second time penalty for power overuse.[20]
Milestones[]
- First Hyderabad E-Prix to be held.
- 100th E-Prix for António Félix da Costa.
- Eleventh win for Jean-Éric Vergne.
- This was Vergne's first win since the 2021 Rome E-Prix I.
- Dragon Racing secured their third victory.
- First win for Dragon as an entrant since the 2016 Mexico City ePrix.
- Fifteenth victory for DS as a powertrain supplier.
- First fastest lap recorded by Norman Nato.
Standings[]
Pascal Wehrlein had luck and potentially fate to thank for a miraculous afternoon in Hyderabad, for the German racer had seen his early lead in the Championship jump to eighteen points, despite having spent the early stages of the E-Prix well outside the points. Indeed, fortune had instead departed Wehrlein's main rival Jake Dennis in the latter stages of the race, to Wehrlein's benefit, although the Brit was still in a very comfortable second place, with Hyderabad winner Jean-Éric Vergne holding half of Dennis' points in third. Vergne himself was level with Sébastien Buemi on 31 points after the opening four rounds, but ahead courtesy of his victory, while Nick Cassidy was up to fifth, level on 28 with Sam Bird.
In the Team's Championship fortune had also favoured the Porsche team, with the German manufacturer's factory squad having leapt onto 101 points and a healthy lead at the head of the herd, despite having spent a lot of the race with both of their cars only in the minor points or outside them. Instead, Porsche had opened up a 23 point advantage over their customers Avalanche Andretti amid the Hyderabad chaos, while behind Envision Racing had moved back up to third, nineteen off the American entry. McLaren had made way for Envision and dropped to fourth after their first FE non-score, while Jaguar Racing completed the top five in-spite of the Hyderabad horror show they had endured.
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Only point scoring drivers are shown.
References[]
Videos and Images:
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 'SEASON 9 CALENDAR: Global stage set for Formula E's new Gen3 era', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 29/06/2022), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2022/june/season-9-calendar-announced, (Accessed 29/06/2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 'Indian renewable energy company Greenko named title sponsor of Hyderabad ePrix', thebridge.in, (The Bridge, 02/02/2022), https://thebridge.in/formula-e/indian-renewable-energy-company-greenko-named-title-sponsor-of-hyderabad-eprix-39342, (Accessed 04/02/2022)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 'Evans and Jaguar seal pole in Hyderabad', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 11/02/2023), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/16887/evans-and-jaguar-seal-pole-in-hyderabad, (Accessed 11/02/2023)
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 'Vergne seals remarkable win in Hyderabad', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 11/02/2023), https://fiaformulae.com/en/news/16926/vergne-seals-remarkable-win-in-hyderabad, (Accessed 11/02/2023)
- ↑ 'Hyderabad Street Circuit', racingcircuits.info, (Racing Circuits, 2023), https://www.racingcircuits.info/asia/india/hyderabad-street-circuit.html, (Accessed 04/02/2023)
- ↑ 'Mexico City E-Prix - Official Entry List', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 13/01/2023), https://fe-results.s3.amazonaws.com/08_2022-23/01_R01%20Mexico%20City/Event%20Information/01_R01_MEX_ENTRY%20%20LIST.pdf#pdfjs.action=download, (Accessed 04/02/2023)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 'Updated calendar, faster racing and knockout qualifying for Season 8', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 15/10/2021), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2021/october/season-8-sporting-update, (Accessed 16/10/2021)
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