Diriyah ePrix Race Review (Round 3)
Diriyah Double for Wehrlein
Pascal Wehrlein made it two wins from two in Diriyah to take the lead of the Drivers’ Championship. Wehrlein came through from fifth this time to once again beat Jake Dennis whilst McLaren’s Rene Rast rounded out the podium.
The Most Notable Moments
Jake Hughes started on pole in only his third Formula E race, but he quickly lost the lead as Mitch Evans took the lead into the first corner. Not many overtakes took place in the first fourth of this race, but the action started to happen when leader Mitch Evans entered attack mode. Evans managed to get back ahead of Jake Hughes (whilst he activated his attack mode), but he was jumped by Hughes’ teammate Rene Rast. Rast then pulled out a decent lead and this saw Wehrlein get a move on as he passed both Hughes and Evans to move into P2. As Wehrlein took his first attack mode, he had so much pace and he was able to jump his fellow German to take the lead of the race. Jake Dennis and Sam Bird then started to get a move on as well as they both passed Edoardo Mortara before Dennis overtook Hughes, Evans and Rast in the space of 3 laps to move up into P2. At this point, Sam Bird had so much more energy than the guys in front of them and he was able to make the overtakes to move into P3 meaning we had the same podium as the day before. However, things changed on lap 28 as Nico Mueller went too deep in his attempt at an overtake at Turn 18 and he went spinning into the wall. This brought out the safety car and at this point, both Jake Dennis and Sam Bird still had an attack mode remaining (Bird had two). When the racing got underway, Dennis and Bird went into attack mode and even though Jake got ahead of Rene Rast, Sam did not. The Jaguar driver knew he had to overtake Rast if he was to challenge for the win and this cost him as he went too deep and lost a bunch of time (he did stay in fourth though). Sam Bird tried to get past Rast, but he just couldn’t whilst Pascal Wehrlein had Dennis covered to win the race by 1.2 seconds. Also, Mitch Evans was trying his hardest to get past Jake Hughes, but on the run-up to the line, Hughes ran out of energy and Evans got stuck behind him allowing Sebastian Buemi to get past the Jaguar driver and move into P6.
Drivers who Impressed
Once again, Pascal Wehrlein picked up another win and he looks really damn good right now. Jake Dennis also did a good job again and Rene Rast did a really good job to end up on the podium. Sam Bird looked quick, but he’ll be frustrated with himself for making a mistake that cost him another spot on the podium. Jake Hughes is proving himself to be a really quick qualifier, but he is struggling to stay right at the front in the races. Sacha Fenestraz picked up an amazing P8 for Nissan and Dan Ticktum also scored a point for Nio 333.
Drivers who Struggled
Antonio Felix da Costa, Andre Lotterer and Lucas di Grassi all had good recoveries in the ePrix, but their qualifying performances were so poor that it meant that neither of them finished in the points. Also, DS Penske are really struggling at the moment. Jean-Eric Vergne started 16th and finished 16th whilst Stoffel Vandoorne dropped from 8th to 20th. I’m assuming his car had an issue. Finally, Nico Mueller had a pretty bad weekend let alone a day. Considering his teammate had never driven a Formula E car, for him to make the mistake is already quite concerning.
Overall Race Results
Pascal Wehrlein: 50:40.304
Jake Dennis: +1.252
Rene Rast: +4.554
Sam Bird: +4.851
Jake Hughes: +10.869
Sebastian Buemi +10.947
Mitch Evans: +11.088
Sacha Fenestraz: +12.409
Edoardo Mortara: +12.753
Dan Ticktum: +13.275
Antonio Felix da Costa: +15.229
Andre Lotterer: +15.623
Nick Cassidy: +17.038
Norman Nato: +19.569
Lucas di Grassi: +20.796
Jean-Eric Vergne: +21.221
Sergio Sette Camara: +22.243
Kelvin van der Linde: +25.291
Maximilian Gunther: +27.131
Stoffel Vandoorne: +37.572
Oliver Rowland: DNF
Nico Mueller: DNF
Drivers’ Standings:
Pascal Wehrlein: 68pts
Jake Dennis: 62pts
Sebastian Buemi: 31pts
Sam Bird: 28pts
Jake Hughes: 27pts
Teams’ Standings:
Avalanche Andretti: 76pts
TAG Heuer Porsche: 74pts
NEOM McLaren: 53pts
Envision Racing: 41pts
Jaguar TCS Racing: 39pts
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