Diriyah ePrix Race Review (Round 2)
Updated: Jan 29, 2023
Wehrlein wins as Porsche shows pace
Pascal Wehrlein came across the line first to take his second ePrix victory. Wehrlein started from 9th place and he cut his way through the field before he held off Jake Dennis (who started 11th) to take the win. Jaguar’s Sam Bird rounded out the podium.
The Most Notable Moments
Sebastian Buemi held off Jake Hughes at the start whilst Mitch Evans went into Rene Rast. This sort of caused a chain reaction and it ended up with Antonio Felix da Costa in the wall. He was able to continue. Sam Bird looked particularly quick at the start and he managed to get past both Jake Hughes and Sebastian Buemi to take the lead of the ePrix. Rene Rast then made a mistake on lap 9 and this allowed Pascal Wehrlein to get through into 5th whilst championship leader Jake Dennis was starting to come through the field. Sacha Fenestraz then made a really poor error as whilst he was driving into the attack mode area, he actually locked up his brakes and went straight into the wall. He pitted for repairs. Sam Bird was looking really good at the halfway point of the race, but both Wehrlein and Dennis were climbing further up the field. On lap 24, Sam Bird took his attack mode and this meant he had Pascal Wehrlein all over him. The Porsche man went for the move into the chicane on lap 26, but he went too deep and this allowed the Brit to keep first place. However, Wehrlein was able to get the pass into the chicane on lap 30 to take the lead of the Diriyah ePrix. Meanwhile, Jake Dennis was still climbing through the field, overtaking Rene Rast and jumping Sebastian Buemi (who was activating attack mode) for P3. With 5 laps to go, Jake Dennis managed to overtake Sam Bird for second place and even though he pushed Wehrlein, the German copped to take his second-ever Formula E victory.
Drivers who Impressed
Obviously, we have to talk about the top 2. Both Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis made coming through the field look ridiculously easy. We’re only two rounds in, but these two are definitely setting the early pace in the Gen3 era. Sam Bird looked good to win the race after about 15 laps and even though that didn’t happen, he drove a really strong race to take his first podium since season 7. Even though Sebastian Buemi dropped down to 4th place, a pole position and a P4 is a very strong day for the Swiss driver. Rene Rast was very solid and both Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne had strong races to come in P6 and P7 respectively. Andre Lotterer picked up 2 points after starting 15th and reigning Champion Stoffel Vandoorne climbed up 6 places (17th to 11th).
Drivers who Struggled
I ended with Stoffel Vandoorne and I really need to start with Stoffel Vandoorne. He may have had a solid recovery, but his qualifying performance was really poor. Also, he didn’t score points. Jake Hughes had a tougher race this time out, he started 2nd, but dropped down to 8th place. Lucas di Grassi started in P7, but he ended up coming over the line in 13th whilst Dan Ticktum, who qualified a brilliant P4, dropped all the way down to 14th place. Sacha Fenestraz made a really stupid error which rather ruined his race both Maserati drivers had a horrible weekend. Both guys crashed in qualifying and this saw Max Gunther unable to take part in the race whilst Edo Mortara ended up retiring in the race because he was right down at the back of the field. They really need a good result today.
Overall Race Results
Pascal Wehrlein: 47:45.567
Jake Dennis: +0.531
Sam Bird: +3.526
Sebastian Buemi: +6.048
Rene Rast: +7.471
Nick Cassidy: +7.614
Jean-Eric Vergne: +12.394
Jake Hughes: +15.187
Andre Lotterer: +15.563
Mitch Evans: +17.914
Stoffel Vandoorne: +26.307
Norman Nato: +27.070
Lucas di Grassi: +28.799
Dan Ticktum: +37.318
Sergio Sette Camara: +45.034
Kelvin van der Linde: +1:00.135
Sacha Fenestraz: +1:09.547
Antonio Felix da Costa: +1 Lap
Oliver Rowland: + 1 Lap
Edoardo Mortara: DNF
Nico Mueller: DNF
Maximilian Gunther: DNS
Drivers’ Standings:
Jake Dennis: 44pts
Pascal Wehrlein: 43pts
Sebastian Buemi: 23pts
Lucas di Grassi: 18pts
Sam Bird: 15pts
Teams’ Standings:
Avalanche Andretti: 58pts
Tag Heuer Porsche: 49pts
Envision Racing: 33pts
NEOM McLaren: 25pts
Jaguar TCS Racing: 20pts
