Venturi's Mortara takes Formula E lead with victory in Diriyah
The Hindu
Saturday's win was Mortara's third in Formula E and handed him a four-point lead in the standings over Friday's Mercedes race winner Nyck de Vries, with 14 of the season's 16 races to go
Swiss racer Edoardo Mortara vaulted into the overall championship lead with victory in the second Formula E race at Saudi Arabia's Diriyah E-Prix on Saturday.
The 35-year-old, who started second on the grid in his Venturi, crossed the line 0.451 seconds ahead of Envision Racing's Robin Frijns, with the race ending under safety car conditions.
Mortara's team mate Lucas di Grassi handed the Monaco-based team a double-podium in third.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.