Berlin ePrix Race Review (Round 7)
Jaguar take their first ever 1-2 as Mitch Evans wins again
Mitch Evans made it back-to-back Formula E race victories as he headed teammate Sam Bird for Jaguar TCS Racing’s first-ever 1-2. Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Gunther rounded out the podium.
The Most Notable Moments
At the start of the ePrix, NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum got an amazing start which saw him go from 4th on the grid to 1st after the first two corners. Ticktum, Sebastian Buemi, and Stoffel Vandoorne all elected to take their first attack mode of the race on just lap 3 (of 40), and after lap 6, Ticktum, Buemi, and Bird had all activated their second attack mode. At this point, Edoardo Mortara was flying through the field (he went from 11th to 2nd) before Sergio Sette Camara outbroke himself and tagged the back of Max Gunther, causing major front-wing damage to the NIO driver. However, Sette Camara carried on for another lap and he was then taken out himself by Rene Rast who really misjudged his breaking point. This resulted in the Safety Car coming out as Jack Dennis now led from Edo Mortara and Sebastian Buemi. When the race got back underway, madness ensued as positions were changing left right and center and Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans now lead the race. Andre Lotterer then tagged Jean-Eric Vergne in the final corner which resulted in Vergne dropping all the way down the field whilst the German driver received a 5-second time penalty. On Lap 20, a big crash occurred as Dan Ticktum completely squeezed Stoffel Vandoorne into the wall, resulting in a DNF for both drivers as well as Jake Hughes who got taken out when Ticktum’s broken car came back across the track.
When the race got back underway following the second Safety Car of the afternoon, it looked to be a six-horse fight between the two Jaguar’s (Evans and Bird), the two Maserati’s (Gunther and Mortara), Envision’s Buemi and Avalanche Andretti’s Dennis. The positions continued to change at a rapid pace of knots whilst Antonio Felix da Costa continued to climb through from 19th on the grid before he passed both Gunther and Dennis to move up into P4. Jake Dennis, whose chances of winning the race were being massively hindered by the two Maserati’s, lost the car into the braking zone by the Airplane and went straight into the wall. Unfortunately, the Brit also accidentally broke the front suspension of da Costa’s car, meaning the Portuguese driver’s race was over. Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein was doing another one of his quiet drives through the field as he was now running in P5. On Lap 36, Sebastian Buemi led from Sam Bird and Mitch Evans whilst Maximilian Gunther was just about hanging on to the top 3. Evans was the first to strike as he got past his teammate before he sent it on Buemi to take the lead of the Berlin ePrix. We then entered the 3 additional laps caused due to the Safety Car and at this point, Evans had built a gap between him and the cars behind. On the final lap, Sam Bird managed to overtake Sebastian Buemi and move up into P2 before Max Gunther overtook the Swiss racing driver into the final corner before he beat his competitor to the line to take a brilliant P3. A brilliant race that saw 190 overtakes in total and 8 different race leaders! This was Formula E at its best.
Drivers who Impressed
Mitch Evans started the race from 9th on the grid and his cool, calm, and calculated drive resulted in the Kiwi taking his second victory in a row. Sam Bird can also be happy with another podium whilst Max Gunther, who hadn’t scored a point in the first six races of the season, will be absolutely ecstatic to take his first podium with Maserati MSG. Both Envision’s did well on Saturday whilst Pascal Wehrlein can be very happy with his drive which saw him gain 9 places and finish 6th overall. JEV did a really good job to recover after being completely whipped out by Andre Lotterer (the German finished 1 place behind Vergne) whilst Oliver Rowland picked up a point after starting 21st on the grid. Antonio Felix da Costa also deserves a quick shoutout as his recovery drive was superb regardless of the fact that he didn’t end up finishing the race.
Drivers who Struggled
Sergio Sette Camara didn’t have the greatest of afternoons as he dropped from 7th to 16th. One incident was his fault, one definitely wasn’t. Rene Rast, who took out the Brazilian driver, had a really bad home race and he’ll be hoping for much more today. Jake Dennis is a tough one because I totally get why he would’ve been frustrated as he kept being barged out of the way by drivers. However, you’re not going to win a world championship if you lose your head and unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened to the “poster boy of Formula E” (as said by Vernon Kay during the build-up). Finally, Dan Ticktum really needs to sort out his driving because it’s now been two races in a row where he’s completely taken out a fellow competitor. The biggest shame of all is the fact that Ticktum is a really quick racing driver who was having a really good day up until lap 20.
Overall Race Results
Mitch Evans: 55:10.391
Sam Bird: +1.850
Maximilian Gunther: +2.738
Sebastian Buemi: +2.849
Nick Cassidy: +4.787
Pascal Wehrlein: +9.111
Jean-Eric Vergne: +9.191
Andre Lotterer: +9.504
Edoardo Mortara: +10.159
Oliver Rowland: +10.308
Lucas di Grassi: +19.449
Sacha Fenestraz: +21.549
Norman Nato: +24.561
Robin Frijns: +25.627
Nico Muller: +27.580
Sergio Sette Camara: +34.847
Rene Rast: +1 Lap
Jake Dennis: +5 Laps
Antonio Felix da Costa: DNF
Jake Hughes: DNF
Stoffel Vandoorne: DNF
Dan Ticktum: DNF
Drivers’ Standings:
Pascal Wehrlein: 94pts
Nick Cassidy: 71pts
Jean-Eric Vergne: 66pts
Mitch Evans: 64pts
Jake Dennis: 62pts
Teams’ Standings:
TAG Heuer Porsche: 152pts
Envision Racing: 128pts
Jaguar TCS Racing: 126pts
DS Penske: 88pts
Avalanche Andretti: 85pts
