Berlin ePrix Race Review (Round 8)
Brilliant drive from Cassidy results in first victory of the season
Envision Racing’s Nick Cassidy drove superbly to take a well-deserved victory ahead of Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis and DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne.
The Most Notable Moments
After a ridiculous Qualifying that saw ABT CUPRA (who hadn’t scored a single point this season before today) lock out the front row, Robin Frijns got a good start to keep teammate Nico Muller behind him through the first few corners. Like yesterday, a bunch of the leading drivers activated their first attack mode super earlier in order to drop back into the pack and conserve energy. After most of the drivers had taken their first attack mode, Frijns led from Mitch Evans (one of the few who was yet to activate attack mode), Vergne, and Muller. After Robin Frijns took his second attack mode, the pole sitter drop down through the back and outside the points-paying positions whilst his teammate was still running in a podium place. Both Tag Heuer Porsche cars of Pascal Wehrlein and Antonio Felix da Costa were starting to look really strong and then the race turned bonkers as overtakes were happening at basically every corner on the track! On Lap 19, Wehrlein and da Costa were running 1-2 ahead of JEV, Nick Cassidy, and Jake Dennis who was starting to put his mark on the race. Dennis then moved further up the field by overtaking Cassidy whilst Vergne was having a huge scrap with the two Porsche drivers. Sebastian Buemi, who was having a pretty good race up until this point, picked up damage somewhere which resulted in him having to pit and ending his hopes of another top-10 finish. Nick Cassidy now led the race ahead of Dennis and da Costa whilst Mitch Evans moved past both Wehrlein and Vergne and up into 4th place. Vergne then passed Antonio Felix da Costa before the Portuguese and Evans made contact into the hairpin with 5 laps to go which resulted in both drivers losing ground on the top 3. The final few laps of the race saw everyone push flat-out as they’d saved enough energy and Nick Cassidy was able to keep Jake Dennis behind to take a fantastic victory which propels him right into the championship fight (if he wasn’t already in it).
Drivers who Impressed
Nick Cassidy has been really good all season long and he continued that today to take what has been a victory long in the making. Jake Dennis can be really pleased that his first clean race since Diriyah resulted in a podium whilst Jean-Eric Vergne drove well to take the last step on the podium. Both Mitch Evans and Antonio Felix da Costa had solid races whilst Maximilian Gunther drove incredibly well to finish 6th after starting on the back row of the grid (21st). Nico Muller also deserves a mention as he put in a sensational performance to qualify P2 and he can be really pleased to come away from the weekend with 2 points. Finally, Dan Ticktum should be pleased with a point after starting 18th on the grid whilst Sacha Fenestraz went from 20th to 11th.
Drivers who Struggled
It would be unfair to say Pascal Wehrlein struggled as he qualified 6th and finished 7th. However, Pascal will need to return to the podium soon if he’s going to stay top of the championship. Both Sergio Sette Camara and Norman Nato didn’t really show any signs of pace today whilst Robin Frijns, who pulled off one of the greatest Qualifying performances I have ever seen, had no pace in the race and only finished 17th in the end. Jake Hughes also had no pace whatsoever whilst Sam Bird, Sebastian Buemi, Andre Lotterer, and Edoardo Mortara will all be disappointed with their races even if they weren’t necessarily the reason why it went wrong.
Overall Race Results
Nick Cassidy: 46:34.509
Jake Dennis: +0.442
Jean-Eric Vergne: +1.292
Mitch Evans: +1.769
Antonio Felix da Costa: +2.460
Maximilian Gunther: +2.981
Pascal Wehrlein: +3.545
Stoffel Vandoorne: +4.851
Nico Muller: +6.612
Dan Ticktum: +7.822
Sacha Fenestraz: 9.461
Lucas di Grassi: +9.462
Rene Rast: +9.678
Oliver Rowland: +11.780
Sergio Sette Camara: +13.687
Norman Nato: +13.749
Robin Frijns: +22.937
Jake Hughes: +29.580
Sam Bird: +34.381
Sebastian Buemi: +1:03.532
Andre Lotterer: +1:04.102
Edoardo Mortara: DNF
Drivers’ Standings:
Pascal Wehrlein: 100pts
Nick Cassidy: 96pts
Jean-Eric Vergne: 81pts
Jake Dennis: 80pts
Mitch Evans: 76pts
Teams’ Standings:
TAG Heuer Porsche: 168pts
Envision Racing: 153pts
Jaguar TCS Racing: 138pts
DS Penske: 107pts
Avalanche Andretti: 103pts
