February 11 will be a red-letter day in Indian Motorsports as the country hosted its first Formula E event in Hyderabad. The race took place on a street circuit created lakeside along the heart-shaped Hussain Sagar lake in Hyderabad. To celebrate the E-Prix, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar made an appearance at the track and also took part in a track lap with Indian motorsports prodigy and Mahindra Racing reserve driver Jehan Daruvala.
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The pair drove around the Hyderabad City Circuit in the Mahindra-owned Pininfarina Battista hypercar, which is the fastest World's fastest-accelerating electric car. The Battista is described as “the most powerful road-legal Italian car ever built” and made its debut, a day before the race, at the Hyderabad E-Motor Show.
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Along with Sachin Tendulkar, current Indian players like Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal and his wife Dhanashree Verma also made an appearance at the race. These Indian players were seen around the track and inside the Mahindra Racing paddock, where Jehan Daruvala showed them around.
Talking about the race, Indian fans were presented with a nerve-racking spectacle as DS PENSKE driver Jean-Eric Vergne clinched the victory. The Frenchman fended away the Envision Racing pair of Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi. But after the race, TAG Heuer Porsche's Antonio Felix da Costa ultimately took third after Buemi was penalised.
Behind Costa, his teammate Pascal Wehrlein finished fourth ahead of Sérgio Sette Câmara of NIO 333 RACING to conclude the top five. The Indian team, Mahindra Racing had a disappointing performance as Oliver Rowland missed out on a possible podium and finished sixth. While Lucas Di Grassi ended up with a 14th-place finish.
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