The distance of Sunday’s Formula 1 race at the Italian circuit in Misano was two laps shorter than on Saturday. not 28 laps, but 26, but this already promised some changes in tactics.
In any case, many riders said that it would be a little easier to control energy expenditure on a shorter distance. As DS Penske driver Stoffel Vandoorne, who won the electric series title in 2022, cheerfully put it before the start: “A race that is two laps shorter means two laps less chaos!”
Today he started from 6th position and this gave him good chances to move forward, especially considering that António Felix da Costa, who only started the race in 13th, crossed the finish line first on Saturday. Admittedly, he was later disqualified due to a very minor discrepancy between his Porsche and the requirements of the technical regulations.
The reasons for such a harsh decision by the FIA were on the one hand purely formal – the rules are the rules – but it was criticized by virtually everyone as being contrary to both common sense and the principle of competition. Today the Portuguese (also a former Formula E champion) started from the last position after a failed qualification.
Looking ahead, let’s say that he was unlucky on Sunday – just like Vandoorne.
Jake Hughes had a good start from pole, although it looked like Jean-Eric Vergne could go ahead of him. The top three held their positions on the first lap, but by the second lap Nick Cassidy had moved up to third and pushed Pascal Wehrlein aside, with Sam Bird overtaking the German.
Due to some problems, Mitch Evans, who had only started 15th, lost several positions on the third lap and ended up 19th. On the third lap, Hughes, Vergne and Muller used Attack Mode for the first time, after which Jean-Eric took the lead, with Jake in 4th place. However, he soon returned to the top three.
It seems that on the fifth lap much of the same tactical ‘chess’ as we saw yesterday began, when the lead passed from driver to driver almost several times per lap, and it was extremely difficult to keep track of all the happenings on the track. , and even more difficult: understand the logic of what is happening.
Only the general principle was clear: no one wanted to lead in the early stages of the race, as whoever goes first inevitably uses more energy. Just before the finish, the validity of this thesis was confirmed.
On lap 8, Envision driver Robin Frijns was knocked off the track and complained on the radio that he was between two competitors and had nowhere to go. The video replay clearly showed that to the right of his electric car was Bird’s car, and to the left was Da Costa’s Porsche, which Frijns grabbed in a vice, and carbon fragments flew from his Envision.
The safety car came out, but did not stay on track for long. After the restart, Nick Cassidy was in the lead, but he was almost immediately ahead of Hughes, after which Wehrlein rose to first position.
On lap eleven, Da Costa’s problems continued: he desperately made his way to the front, but after contact with one of his rivals his car was damaged and he drove into the pits to replace the front wing and nose fairing. Naturally, he then rolled back to last position.
Soon, Andretti driver Norman Nato had a similar collision: in Turn 1 he pinned the lead electric car of Vergne, after which he also had to go to the pits to change the front wing.
With ten laps to go, Oliver Rowland was in the lead at this stage of the race, followed by Pascal Wehrlein, who was closely followed by Nico Müller.
On the 18th lap, Mitch Evans’ car stopped due to a technical problem, but the Jaguar driver quickly managed to continue, meaning there was no appearance of a safety car. After this, the New Zealander was among the last and could no longer claim any points.
Wehrlein returned to the lead for some time, but Rowland overtook him in Turn 5 and led the pack again five laps before the finish. However, the batteries of his Nissan remained several percent less energy than those of his pursuers, which played a fatal role at the end of the race. Meanwhile, Pascal was hot on the Brit’s heels, and you could expect him to launch a decisive attack before the finish.
At the same time, they already had a lead of more than three seconds over the others, and Dennis, who was riding third, did not want or could not overtake them. But on the final lap an event occurred that affected the outcome of the race: Rowland’s Nissan batteries ran out of energy and Oliver came to a virtual standstill on the track.
Therefore, Pascal Wehrlein was the first to see the checkered flag and took his second victory of the season. Also on the podium were Jake Dennis, who didn’t let any of his rivals get ahead even though they pressed him until the finish, and Nick Cassidy, who was ahead of Muller in the final corners. The Swiss took fourth place and Hughes, who started from pole, completed the top five.
Wehrlein, who achieved his sixth Formula E victory, complained after the finish that the first half of the race was no less chaotic than yesterday, and in the second half he had to save battery power, but it is clear that he copes with this task better than Roland. Apparently, unlike Porsche’s rivals, the Nissan team made an error in the calculations – if this had not been the case, Oliver would not have fallen out of contention on the last lap.
If before the start of the race he was in the lead in the individual competition, after the finish he came third and Wehrlein climbed to first place, although he has the same number of points as Dennis – 89 each. But the Porsche The driver still has one victory – and this is today’s victory in Misano.
The World Championship battle is heating up and the next stage will take place on the last weekend of April in Monaco. In general it will be interesting.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
