It was a one-two result regardless for the German marque, with Porsche’s 99X Electric powertrain in the back of the winning Andretti of Jake Dennis, with the polesitter making his second visit to the podium’s top step for the season, and second-placed Cupra Kiro of Spanish young gun Pepe Martí. Mahindra’s Nyck de Vries was promoted to complete the top-three, following a post-race penalty for Andretti rookie Felipe Drugovich.
Wehrlein looked a strong prospect for the Sanya victory until lap 27 of 39, when he earned a 5-second time penalty for making contact with Nissan’s Norman Nato at turn three that forced the French racer into the wall.
“Yeah, it looked quite promising,” the German said post-race. “You could tell I was giving everything and trying to push really hard and until the red flag we looked super strong and very good and did the right moves on Attack Mode timing and so on.
“Yeah, when I tried to pass [Norman] Nato, he lifted super early, so I committed to a move and he went back on throttle. So as soon as I saw that I was hitting the brakes, but he just turned in and we touched each other. That was my perspective. So yeah, that penalty put us out of the points. But like I said I was giving everything.”
The other works Porsche of Nico Müller finished seventh for sixth points, to take his total haul to 89 overall, 12 points behind Wehrlein – who can easily close the 27-point gap to standings leader, Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, with six races remaining across three locations in Shanghai, Tokyo and London and a win worth 25 points.
All teams left Sanya with a heavy heart, already looking forward to Season 13’s return, with Hainan considered the Hawaii of China with temperatures in the mid-30s and up to 85 per cent humidity. The 2.52-kilometre Haitang Bay Circuit is a challenging 12-turn street track, too, with a flat-out section involving parallel straights and a hairpin between turns seven and 11, and an uphill start to its pit straight.
The track is flanked by the luxurious, five-star Shangri-La hotel, an airconditioned and opulent oasis just a short walk from the Formula E paddock. It houses the media centre in its palatial ballroom, ensuring journalists don’t have to walk far to interview the drivers in the media pen or report on the action in real time.
Formula E will return to Sanya for round seven in Season 13 on April 17th. But the paddock now heads to cosmopolitan Chinese hub Shanghai for the first of three double-headers to end the season on July 4th and 5th.
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Images: Formula E/LAT Images