Pascal Wehrlein wins Mexico E-Prix, debutant Jehan Daruvala finishes 16th

Mexico City: Indian racer Jehan Daruvala endured a disappointing Formula E debut as he finished 16th at the Mexican E-Prix here.

The 25-year-old, the only rookie this season, had a promising qualifying, finishing the session in ninth place in Group A, with a time of 1m14.469s, which was sixth-tenths off what group topper Robin Frijns achieved.

However, that was not enough to take him to the Duels, which meant he lined up at the latter half of the grid at the 17th spot for the race.

Driving for Maserati MSG Racing, Jehan, who has made the switch to electric racing after spending four years on Formula 2, was able to make some ground and rose to 15th at the first corner but soon fell back to 17th by the end of the first lap.

His descent continued as he further fell to 20th in the second lap.

With Frijns, Antonio da Costa, Lucas di Grassi, and Sette Camara not finishing the race, Jehan was third last.

His fellow Maserati MSG Racing driver Maximilian Gunther, who topped his qualifying group and lined up at number 5 in the starting grid, finished fourth to bag 12 points.

TAG Heuer Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein converted his pole to victory as he picked up his second win in Mexico with a superbly well-managed drive in front of a roaring crowd at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

Envision Racing's Sebastien Buemi and Jaguar TCS Racing debutant Nick Cassidy, who also had the fastest lap, were the other two drivers on the podium.

Jaguar TCS Racing's Mitch Evans rounded out the top 5. While reigning world champion Andretti's Jake Dennis made up ground to finish ninth from 14th at the start.

"A pretty good day with pole position and the race win,” Wehrlein said "Our focus in the off-season was especially in qualifying as that was one of our weaknesses in the last half last season. I hope we took a good step forward. Let's see if it's just Mexico City, or if we can confirm that in the next couple of events," he added.

Wehrlein controlled the proceeding from the word go up until the chequered flag came out, only briefly losing the lead through ATTACK MODE and a spell under Full Course Yellow.

The German took both his ATTACK MODES in quick succession early on in the E-Prix. However, a gap between him to Buemi soon appeared after the season 2 champion made an error when hunting down Wehrlein.

The Porsche driver jumped off the line to a one-second lead, keeping Buemi at arm's length, a couple of seconds back for the vast majority of the race.

Former champion and F1 discard Nyck de Vries' comeback to Formula E didn't go as per plan as he finished an underwhelming 15th, racing for Mahindra Racing.

Mahindra's struggles with the Gen 3 car continued as their other driver Switzerland's Edoardo Mortara also finished outside of the points in 13th place.