Formula E: Jake Dennis wins first race of the weekend

Saudi Arabia will host the second round of the Electric Car World Championship this weekend, with the first of two races taking place at the Diriyah circuit on Friday evening.

Qualifying on the 2.495km city circuit at Turn 21 was won by Jean-Eric Vergne – this is the sixteenth achievement of the French DS Penske driver’s career. The Saudi highway has a rather tricky configuration, which outwardly does not seem so complicated, but this is only at first glance. In reality, its twisty nature poses difficult challenges for electric series racers.

The two-time Formula E champion dealt with it best, but the second time today was shown by Mitch Evans, who clearly performed worse than he could in the first phase of the season, in Mexico, so now he planned to return to win. It is curious that two weeks ago, on the last stage of the race, he managed not to let Vergne advance – Mitch then took 5th place and Jean-Eric 6th.

But today they started in reverse order, with Penske’s golden DS electric car on pole and New Zealand’s Jaguar on the front row next to it. Of course, Vergne and Evans are among the most experienced Formula E drivers, and their confrontation is of fundamental importance. But Mitch, unlike his opponent, has not yet managed to win the title, although he is among the favorites for the championship every year.

It is too early to predict what will happen in the tenth season, but it is absolutely certain that Evans is very serious about fighting for victories. After the first stage the leader in the individual competition was Pascal Wehrlein, a Porsche driver who climbed to the top step of the podium in Mexico City, but now showed sixth result in qualifying and started the race from the third row .

Vergne started quite confidently and kept the lead, while immediately blocking the path through which Evans could attack him, and he had to move to the side, which benefited Jake Dennis, the Andretti driver and current world champion. In Turn 1 he tried to squeeze to the right of Mitch’s car, but managed to hold on to second position, although he almost ended up off track.

However, almost immediately the leaders took turns activating the powerful Attack mode, which required them to move off the line, so the order in the top three changed periodically, and on the fifth lap Dennis was already in front, Vergne was chasing him. , and Evans was in third place.

Wehrlein, the winner of the first stage, did not have a good race on the Saudi circuit, losing positions and only in 9th place after seven laps.

When the leaders activated Attack Mode for the second time, Vergne again took the lead, albeit temporarily – just one lap later both Dennis and Evans were ahead of him, but Jean-Eric remained close behind the New Zealander, and the Frenchman had its high-power mode enabled at that time. However, Mitch defended himself well – he is a great master in this area – and did not let his opponent through for a long time.

On Lap 9, Evans also activated Attack Mode, so he switched positions with Verne, but did so voluntarily, then set off to chase down the two-time champion, who in turn was close on the heels of the leading Dennis.

However, Mitch was the first to take decisive action: on the 12th lap he made Jean-Eric make a mistake: he surprised him at the exit of Turn 17, started to accelerate unexpectedly and took the lead. He then immediately reduced the interval to Dennis’ car to a minimum and it was clear that another attack would soon follow. And so it happened, and Evans even took the lead, but did not calculate the speed while braking, so his electric Jaguar Jaguar flew to the side of the road and Dennis calmly regained his position.

But Vergne immediately began putting pressure on Evans, realizing that he would need to regain his strength and conserve battery energy for a while before he could attack again. The calculation turned out to be correct and on the 16th lap Jean-Eric was able to stay ahead of the Jaguar driver in turn 18.

Moreover, he immediately started to break away from the New Zealander and was already overtaking the rest of the peloton, which was led by Norman Nato, Dennis’ teammate in the Andretti squad.

More than half the race distance was already behind us and no yellow flags ever appeared on the track, which is not so typical for Formula E. Usually some incidents start much earlier, often even in the first laps. And here everyone has already completed 22 of the 37 laps, and so far no incidents have occurred. Looking ahead, let’s say this was true until the end.

The drivers completed lap after lap and Jake Dennis confidently remained in the lead, almost three seconds ahead of Vergne. Two seconds behind the Frenchman’s DS Penske was Evans’ Jaguar, which was just a second clear of its pursuers. But behind Mitch, Cassidy, his partner, was already riding, and after a while Evans let Nick go first. Not because he couldn’t go faster, but simply followed the team’s instructions, which promised that he would regain his position closer to the finish.

This happened on lap 29, when Cassidy pulled off the line to use Attack mode, and it’s only natural that the teammates quickly swapped positions again.

Five laps before the finish Dennis had already increased his lead to four seconds and it was clear that nothing threatened his victory. But Cassidy was already very close to Vergne and he got the chance to use Power Mode again.

The finish line was closing in and Nick activated Attack mode, so Evans again moved up to third position, immediately indicating bellicose intentions and starting to put pressure on Vergne, hoping he would make a mistake. But as British television commentators noted, Jean-Eric taught his opponent, and at the same time everyone else, a masterclass in effective defense.

Mitch kept the pressure on him until the last lap and with only a few corners to go he went on the attack, but made the same mistake as in the earlier stages of the race: he seemed to have already taken the lead, but there was too much little grip in the last chicane of the lap. Evans’ Jaguar flew to the side of the road and not only his teammate drove past, but also Sam Bird, who has been driving for McLaren since this year.

As a result, Jake Dennis, the current world champion, achieved his first victory, with a lead of 13 seconds, which is a lot by any standards. By the way, he also became the author of the best lap of the race. But in Mexico Jake finished ninth, so he is still fourth in the individual rankings and Pascal Wehrlein is still in the lead. Second place today went to Jean-Eric Vergne, he is third in the championship and Cassidy is one line higher – he crossed the finish line in third.

But the next race is held tomorrow, so the balance of power could change somewhat this weekend. The battle in Saturday’s race promises to be even more interesting, as the track will no longer be so dusty and slippery and the grip should be better.