While the fierce title fight dominated the front pages, the English capital also played host to some brilliant midfield masterclasses. Edoardo Mortara and Norman Nato stepped into the spotlight to secure the honours as the biggest risers across the two races, claiming their first Engineered to Outrun success of the season.
For Mortara, the heavy lifting began from 18th on the grid for Saturday’s PIT BOOST race. Opting for a longer first stint before taking his mandatory charging stop, he banked a small but critical 2% extra energy compared to the field's median. That saved energy, combined with six minutes of ATTACK MODE deployment, allowed him to unlock serious pace once rivals pitted into clear air. Even though a full-course yellow wiped out the final minute and a half of his power advantage, it also gifted him a cheaper pitstop.
That strategy worked to absolute perfection, vaulting Mortara from 15th to 8th during the pitstop phase. He didn't just hold that position; he pushed on further, crossing the line fifth before a late time penalty for a robust move on Dan Ticktum dropped him to seventh. Still, it was a stunning drive that set the tone for Sunday, where Mortara locked out a Mahindra one-two in qualifying and finished the race on the podium.
Sunday brought its own wild drama in the season finale, and Nato was ready to pounce when the points-paying positions exploded in the final few laps. Starting down in 19th, Nato spent most of the race making little apparent progress while executing an extreme energy-saving tactic that built a surplus of more than 5% versus the grid’s median.
By the time he triggered ATTACK MODE in the final third of the E-Prix, he had only moved up one spot. But the timing could not have been better to exploit the chaos hitting the championship contenders around the lower reaches of the top 10. Nato gained eight of his nine total positions during this exact phase. A multi-car collision launched him to 11th, and the final seconds of his ATTACK MODE pushed him into ninth. Though team-mate Oliver Rowland's late double ATTACK MODE burst meant the Nissans swapped places again, Nato still salvaged an unlikely point to secure just his fourth top-ten finish of the year.
At the very top of the charts, it was Sebastien Buemi, working alongside race engineer Connor Summerville, who conquered the final leaderboard for the season. Buemi pipped Lucas di Grassi and Markus Michelberger by just two places after hauling in a massive 89 positions gained across the 17 races of the year. Leaving Envision Racing after this season, the 2015/16 champion leaves his Formula E future unknown, but he capped his tenure with class. Buemi scored points in 11 out of 17 rounds, highlighted by two brilliant London drives where he dragged a 10th-place grid slot to fourth and fifth at the checkered flag respectively.
