Nick Heidfeld put on a stunning performance in front of his home fans in Berlin last weekend, as the Mahindra driver came from sixteenth place on the grid to finish comfortably in the points in seventh.

The 39-year old also had a strong qualifying session making it through to Super Pole, but a mistake on his flying lap meant that he started the race from fifth place with his teammate Bruno Senna just ahead of him in fourth place.

However, both Mahindra drivers were found to be under the legal tyre pressure limit set by Michelin and were demoted to 15th and 16th places on the grid.

Heidfeld managed to avoid the trouble in the first couple of corners and began his recovery drive back through the field. The German pulled some a great overtaking manoeuvres on Simona De Silvestro, Mike Conway and Loic Duval to finish in the points.

The Mahindra Racing driver felt that he could have had the pace to fight at the front of the race if he started from fifth place. Speaking to Formula E Zone after the race, Heidfeld felt that the possibility of a podium and another big result for the team was possible.

“The race was very good, and it was the best we could have hoped for from where we started. I was hopeful that we could score some points despite starting at the back, so to finish seventh is great.

“We could have had the pace to fight at the front, but it’s not easy to judge how the race was going because I could not see the cars out front when I was making my way through.

“I did see the cars in front after the safety car period and I think we had the pace to fight for a podium, but it’s too hard to judge, but if we started from fifth and fourth we might have had a good chance and scored some big points,” said Heidfeld.

Mahindra’s race pace has steadily improved since they secured their best finish ever in Formula E in Long Beach, which was a fourth and a fifth place finish. However, the team did lose some ground in the middle of the season, but Heidfeld knows that the team were not slow at those tracks, it was just a case of things not working out as expected and losing out to a competitive grid when things went wrong.

” Formula E is very competitive and lap times are quite close together. There have been a couple of races where things did not work out perfectly, but we were never really slow. I made a mistake in Paris in qualifying which destroyed our race. If I got a lap in, I could have been in the top six but definitely in the top ten.

“The pace has always been there to make it into the top five and it has been that way the whole season, but there have been one or two things getting in the way of our potential. The car is ok we need to make sure we have a good setup and push the car because we don’t have a car that will allow us to go into the top five easily,” said the 39-year old.

Heidfeld now has 47 points and currently sits in ninth in the drivers standings.