The Formula E race in Monaco was accompanied by beautiful sunny weather, the air warmed up to 21 degrees, so the conditions were the most comfortable.
At the start, Mitch Evans, the Jaguar driver who won qualifying, was in the lead, but the other top five drivers also held their positions, and as is often the case in Monaco, no one tried to be particularly aggressive in the early laps.
The peloton was very tight, the intervals between the cars were generally no longer than 0.5-0.7 seconds, all the riders drove very carefully, realizing that the track in Monaco does not forgive excessive sprinting.
The first overtakes took place towards the end of the pack, most notably Antonio Giovinazzi battling for 18th position ahead of Sebastien Buemi, the 2016 Formula E champion who drove for the Nissan team, but this season was not very successful.
On lap 7, Sam Bird’s car braked heavily, probably due to technical problems, and the British driver returned to the pits.
On lap 8, second in command Pascal Wehrlein attacked Evans at the exit of the tunnel and appeared to be ahead of him, but the New Zealander fought back, acting very decisively.
On lap 10 Robin Frijns took advantage of the attack mode and ahead of Andre Lotterer, who was in sixth position, he was teammate Wehrlein of the Porsche team. But the Dutchman immediately moved up another position, as Lucas di Grassi moved off the line to activate the high power mode as well. However, he recovered quickly.
On lap 13 Vergne overtook Wehrlein and took the lead, Evans was behind Pascal and complained to the team on the radio about some problems with the car, but Stoffel Vandorn’s electric Mercedes kept him close behind him in front of his Jaguar.
The battle on track clearly escalated: Wehrlein regained the lead exiting the tunnel and Vergne was again second, but Vandorn moved up to third and Evans was fourth.
But Monaco wouldn’t be Monaco if there were no surprises during the race: the leader braked abruptly due to a technical failure and Vergne once again led the pack, but Vandoorne insisted and felt the opportunity to fight for the win.
At that moment, however, yellow flags appeared on the track, and all over the circle, and the race was neutralized because Wehrlein’s Porsche stopped at the exit of the tunnel.
At the same time, the order in the top three had already changed: Vandorn was in the lead, Evans was second and Vergne was only third. The two-time world champion was unlucky: the yellow flags appeared exactly when he activated the attack mode, and it turned out to be in vain: for this he let two opponents go ahead, and it was already more difficult to earn back once the restart was given.
The next surprise came at the restart: Oliver Rowland tried to get ahead of Lotterer in the Sainte Devote corner, but didn’t keep his Nissan on the track and pushed the German car forward. Porsche crashed into a bump, badly injured in the process. Fortunately, the rider was not injured, but the struggle on the track was neutralized again, this time by an electric safety car.
When the safety car rolled into the pit lane, Vandorn had a great restart, not only retaining the lead but immediately creating a lead of almost a second, followed by Evans, who was chased by Vergne.
Frijns was ahead of Edoardo Mortara and Max Gunther through attack mode and moved up to fifth position. But this was not enough for Robin, he continued to attack and soon left first Lucas di Grassi, then Evans, and climbed to third place. But Mitch, in turn, took advantage of attack mode, which gave him a payback, and gave chase to the second Verne, who was driving.
The attack was not long in coming, but Vergne repulsed it at the exit of the tunnel. In Sainte Devote, however, Mitch made another attempt, and it was a success – the New Zealander was already in second place. But the high power mode ran out and Vandoorne, who was in the lead, was able to extend the lead to almost two seconds as the finish approached.
Several periods of yellow flags and the introduction of the electric safety car added an extra four and a half minutes to the race time. The entire top five still had about 11% of battery charge, but no one was clearly attacking and everyone rode more or less calmly to the finish.
Stoffel Vandorn started the final lap as the leader: the Mercedes driver drove confidently ahead and it is quite logical that it was him who took the win, and at the same time the first line of the personal standings. Mitch Evans finished second which wasn’t too bad considering two straight wins in previous races.
Third place was taken by Jean-Eric Vergne, minimizing losses: having led the championship before the Monaco race, he has now moved up to second in the championship and is just 6 points behind Vandoorne . And Mitch Evans moved up to third after slightly improving his standings.
The Formula E season continues in Berlin in two weeks. On the track, built on the territory of the old Templehof airport, the next round of the electric series, consisting of two races, will be held – these are the 7th and 8th stages of the championship.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
