From the last to seventh : Pepe shines in Mexico.

The Spaniard produced an excellent comeback despite the penalties, scoring his first six points as a CUPRA KIRO driver in Formula E.

Pepe Martí delivered a spectacular race at the Mexico City E-Prix and scored his first points in Formula E. Although the CUPRA KIRO driver started last due to a penalty and also had to serve a 10-second stop-and-go, he produced an outstanding comeback to finish an impressive seventh.

After an E-Prix in São Paulo where Pepe showed strong pace, the second round of the season in Mexico City was set to be very challenging even before it began, as he was carrying a penalty that forced him to start from the back of the grid.

The weekend got under way with a fifteenth-place finish for the Spanish driver in the first Free Practice session, but he encountered problems in the second session and had to change the inverter, MGU and gearbox.

This resulted in an additional 60-place grid penalty for the race, which translated into a 10-second stop-and-go penalty to be served during the race itself.

Despite everything, Pepe never gave up. The Catalan driver made a good start and went straight to serve his penalty at the end of the first lap, which dropped him to almost 50 seconds behind the race leader. From that point on, it was a case of waiting for a Safety Car.

That Safety Car appeared halfway through the race and Pepe, showing great intelligence, made the most of it. Not only had he been conserving energy during the first half of the race, but he also still had both Attack Mode activations available. The strategy was spot on.

After the Safety Car, his performance was of the highest level. First of all, the 20-year-old was able to set a strong pace and took advantage of several incidents ahead of him to climb quickly up to thirteenth position.

On lap 26, he activated Attack Mode for the first time and overtook several drivers to move up to ninth. Seven laps later, on lap 33, he activated it for the second time and moved into eighth place.

In the closing stages, Pepe completed a superb overtaking manoeuvre to finish seventh.

This position was the perfect reward for a great race: the right strategy, very strong pace, excellent energy management and top-class racecraft to overtake so many drivers on track. From last to seventh — 13 positions gained.

After this performance at a circuit that historically has not been one of the most conducive to overtaking in Formula E, Pepe was extremely happy.

“We knew this weekend was going to be difficult, but we never gave up and fought until the very end. Seventh place feels incredible! The team did a great job and we executed the strategy perfectly. I’m very happy to score my first points in Formula E with CUPRA KIRO, and I’m already looking forward to getting back in the car in Miami,” said Pepe.

With these six points in the bag and a big boost in confidence after an excellent race, he will head into the Miami E-Prix, taking place on 30 and 31 January.