Formula E: Jean-Eric Vergne wins Hyderabad race

This weekend saw the first round of the World Electric Car Championship on the city ring, built near the center of the Indian city of Hyderabad.

A fairly difficult and fast track with a lap length of 2835 m consists of several fairly short straights connected by 18 corners. most convenient place for overtaking and sharp moments.

Looking ahead, let’s say this is exactly what happened. In addition, the riders’ task was made more difficult by the hot weather: in Hyderabad on Saturday afternoon it was +33, and in these conditions they had to complete more than 30 laps.

Jaguar factory team Mitch Evans topped qualifying and took his first pole position of the season. The seasoned New Zealander hasn’t had much luck so far in 2023, but he’s undoubtedly working hard to turn things around. It looked like his efforts were starting to pay off, but today was clearly not Jaguar’s day.

Just 0.021 seconds behind Evans was DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who also started from the front row. When asked before the race if he was going to play safe points or if he was going to take risks and fight for the win, the two-time Formula E champion laughed: “You know me!”

The third race was started by another experienced professional – Sebastien Buemi, who plays for the Envision team this year.

But Pascal Wehrlein, the winner of the previous two races, was not lucky this time: firstly, he crashed his electric Porsche car during practice, and secondly, he barely made it into the top ten after qualifying results, and then got a penalty and lost three positions: the stewards decided he was interfering with Sergio Setta Camara on track. As a result, the leader of the individual classification started from a distant 12th position.

The broadcast of the race from Hyderabad began with the premiere of a new musical arrangement made by British musicians on behalf of Formula E, and we talked about this work. The motorsport world has returned to India after a long hiatus and the electric series podium here has sparked a lot of interest: there may have been empty seats in the grandstands, but the paddock guest quarters were packed with important guests and local celebrities.

Evans, anticipating Vergne’s aggressive actions, immediately took the necessary measures and did not let the opponent take the lead at the start; Buemi also retained third position. Surprisingly, all riders came through the third corner calmly, but already on the first lap Nick Cassidy managed to get ahead of Sam Bird and take 6th position.

On the third lap, Edoardo Mortara made a brake error and crashed into Nick Cassidy’s car, breaking his front fender. Oddly enough, despite this very serious damage, Mortara didn’t go straight to the pits, but then he realized it was impossible to continue the race like this and he carefully went to the pits to replace the nose cone. At the same time, fragments of the old wing remained on the track.

After five laps, Evans remained in the lead, followed by Vergne, who let go no more than 0.7 seconds, and Buemi was behind the Frenchman. But this was only until the seventh circle: as soon as Evans shifted off track to activate the heightened attack mode, Sebastien immediately took advantage of this and in the hairpin of turn 3 Vergne was ahead of Vergne with a heady maneuver and took the lead. True, soon the leading position had to be given up, because Buemi also took advantage of the attack mode: in this situation, Jean-Eric stepped forward, but Sebastien managed to get ahead of Evans!

When Vergne in turn activated Attack Mode, he also managed to evade Evans, so Jean-Eric was running second, half a second behind Buemi. The Jaguar team on the radio advised Mitch not to give up and try to earn back, but everything turned out very differently.

On the unlucky lap number 13, Sam Bird tried to get ahead of his partner, but it all ended in hard contact between the two Jaguar cars – both team drivers had to return to the pits and retire from the race. Since both cars remained on track despite the damage, there was no reason to neutralize the race.

The battle on track continued and Vergnu, thanks to the increased power mode on the straight, managed to get ahead of Buemi and take the lead. In addition, Sebastien missed the lead and Nick Cassidy and Jake Dennis. On lap 17, Jake improved and overtook Nick, moving him into 2nd position. But not for long: after going after Attack Mode, Dennis shifted off track, and at that moment Cassidy and Buemi’s cars sped by.

Some intrigue was promised by the fact that Jean-Eric Vergne spent 2% more battery power than his pursuers, and at the end of the distance he could run into trouble. But with 10 laps to go he remained in the lead, and just four-tenths behind him was Nick Cassidy, and this pair was already more than two seconds ahead of Buemi.

But on lap 23, the race was canceled due to a crash by McLaren driver Jake Hughes, the fifth to retire from the Indian round. According to Hughes, a strange incident occurred exiting Turn 3: a rear-view mirror came off the NIO team car in front of him and hit the front of the McLaren, locking the steering wheel. The electric safety car took off and when he returned to the pits there were less than ten laps left to finish.

The Envision team reminded Cassidy that he has 3% more energy than Vergne, and that this resource should be disposed of wisely. But as soon as the race resumed, Rene Rast, the second McLaren driver, ran into trouble: he crashed into Jake Dennis’ car. Both got off.

Four laps from the finish, Cassidy tried to get ahead of Verne, but he placed the car very well on the track and the attack failed. At the same time, the difference in battery power between DS Penske and Envison reached 3 and then 4%. At that time it was announced that due to the period when a safety car was on the track, another lap was added to the distance.

Vergne defended himself to the last, but the source of his batteries gradually dried up. On the last lap the charge dropped below 1%, but by a miracle Jean-Eric managed to keep the lead! He crossed the finish line first and took his first win of the season. Over the radio, he congratulated the team on this success and assured that DS Penske will bounce back as he plans to win the next seven races.

The second and third checkered flags were seen by Envision riders Nick Cassidy and Sebastien Buemi. And the Porsche duo rounded out the top five: António Felix da Costa finished fourth, Werlein, who fought back very well, finished fifth, allowing him to remain the leader of the individual classification, and Vergne moved up to the top thanks to victory. 4th place. By the way, the victory in Hyderabad was the 11th of his career in Formula E.

But soon after the finish it was revealed that 17 seconds had been added to Buemi’s result due to improper use of power, which meant he dropped to 15th in the final protocol, so da Costa got on the podium, which of course meant the De Portuguese was very happy with it, as it was his 100th Formula E race.