Mitch Evans get his second race win on the bounce following a hectic Berlin E-prix and closes the gap to Pascal Wehrlein in the championship.
Credit: Formula E Media Bank / LAT Images
A remarkably intense qualifying session saw Sebastian Buemi break a Formula E record, lining up on the front row for the 23rd time in his career. Sam Bird lines up in P2 and following the tough start to the season for Jaguar, it looks like they’re making a comeback and could challenge Porsche for the Championship. Reigning world champion Stoffel Vandoorne, now racing for DS Penske, completes the top 3. The only city to host a round in every Formula E championship is bound to throw up some exciting racing as all eyes will be set on Pascal Wehrlein, this year’s championship leader, who surprisingly lines up P15 after failing to make it out of Group A. Meanwhile, Jake Dennis and Nick Cassidy who start the first of two races this weekend in P5 and P6 and will be looking to close the 24-point gap that Wehrlein has.
As the green lights go out and 22 cars head into turn 1, Stoffel Vandoorne went for an ambitious move in between Buemi and Bird but quickly backed out as the gap got smaller, NIO 333 Racing driver Dan Ticktum went from zero to hero after the first corner going from fourth to first as he swooped around the outside of the top three. Nick Cassidy’s slow start dropped him down to 7th after the first lap whilst a good start for Gunther puts him up to 5th.
For the next couple of laps the top 5 switch places as Ticktum, Bird, Gunther and Dennis take the wider line heading into turn 6 collecting the attack mode.
Lap 6: Sam Bird leads Jake Dennis and Dan Ticktum with Buemi closely behind the top 3 in fourth and on the next lap Jake Dennis, using the attack mode he collected, dives down the inside of Gunther and takes the Maserati driver’s 5th Place.
On lap 9, Sam Bird re-takes the lead from Dan Ticktum, the NIO 333 driver let his fellow brit dive down the inside into turn 1 just after a team radio where Ticktum said he’s sceptical about the amount of energy he’s using compared to the rest of the field.
On the same lap, Edoardo Mortara was making impressive headway and passed team-mate Maxi Gunther for 5th place, unfortunately for the German, Sergio Sette Camara clipped the rear wing of Gunther at turn 6 and the NIO 333 driver lost part of his front wing, slowing the Maserati down in the process.
An unpredictable and chaotic Berlin E-Prix threw another spanner into the works when Sette Camara and Rene Rast came together at turn 1. The NIO 333 car spun going around turn 1 and was collected by the Mclaren of Rene Rast., who also lost his front wing.
In miraculous style, Mortara stole the lead off Jake Dennis meaning the Maserati made up 11 places in 11 laps. Unfortunately, Mortara’s lead was cut short after Jake Dennis took the lead back and on lap 12 the stewards released the safety car due to the debris.
Lap 14: with the safety car pulling in, Dennis leads the field with Mortara and Buemi in P2 and P3. Dan Ticktum holds town P4 with reigning world champion Vandoorne breathing down his neck. Soon after Ticktum loses his P4 to the Belgian down at the turn 6 hairpin and later loses two positions to both Jaguars on the next lap.
Mortara re-takes the lead on lap 17 but decides to take the attack mode at turn 6, and drops down to P3, giving Mitch Evans the lead of the E-Prix.
Swiftly approaching the halfway point of the race, Mitch Evans takes his first attack mode of race whilst Dennis and Mortara in P2 and P3 have activated their last attack modes, forth placed Buemi and fifth placed Bird have run out whilst Gunther in sixth has three left to utilize.
Later in the lap, Jean Eric-Vergne and Andre Lotterer come together with both spinning on the final corner, further up the field Cassidy’s front wing is left hanging on by a thread following contact with Sam Bird’s Jaguar.
On lap 20 and at the halfway point of the race, fans witness a three car retirement. Coming out of turn 2, Vandoorne tries to swoop round the outside of Ticktum’s NIO 333 car but the Brit, unaware of the Belgian’s presence, squeezes him into the wall and gets dragged into the wall himself by the DS Penske. Both drivers then slide across to the right side of the track and collect Jake Hughes in the process, leaving 19 cars in the race.
Three laps later, Mitch Evans leads the safety car restart with Buemi following closely behind in second and Max Gunther rounding out the top 3 with team-mate Mortara in fourth.
The next lap, Gunther dives down Buemi’s inside at turn 1 and brief contact between Buemi and Evans gives the Maserati driver in the lead some breathing space. Meanwhile, championship leader Wehrlein makes his way up to P7 in a scrappy race.
Lap 26: Both Jaguars of Mitch Evans and Sam Bird lead the race 1-2 and have been told to work together to pull away from the rest of the pack. Swiss driver, Buemi, aware of what’s going to happen passes Gunther’s Maserati for 3rd place and chases the Jaguars.
Lap 28: Jake Dennis starts lapping 1.4 seconds quicker than Evans in P1 and collects the fastest lap of the race giving him the moment to move up into P4. Sebastian Buemi passed two Jaguars in one lap. The Swiss driver disposed of Sam Bird at the turn 6 hairpin and a few corners later hunts down the other Jaguar of Evans and takes the lead.
Two laps later, Evans re-takes the lead from Buemi and on lap 31, an ambitious dive-bomb from Jake Dennis on Max Gunther into the final corner clipped the Andretti’s rear end, doing a 180 degree spin and going backwards across the hairpin, collecting Da Costa in the Porsche in front, Dennis landed in the barrier backwards. Both drivers retiring due to damage and Jake Dennis, unsurprisingly furious, questioned the team as to why the car’s rear end stepped out under breaking.
As the business end of the race approaches, on lap 38 the stewards announced that 3 more laps will be added onto the race due to safety car interventions.
On Lap 40, Mitch Evans puts his Jaguar in P1, re-overtaking Buemi after losing the lead and quickly puts the Envision Racing driver in his mirror, whilst team-mate Sam Bird hunted down the energy-saving Envision.
As Evans’ gap increases with each corner, it wasn’t long before Maxi Gunther’s Maserati joined the fight from P4. On the final lap a three-way battle for P2 between Buemi, Bird and Gunther goes right down to the wire as Buemi defends well for first part of the lap but couldn’t stop the Jaguar up his inside in turn 6.
Sam Bird, going a little too deep into turn 6, had Buemi doing the switchback up his inside, the drivers were neck and neck heading into turn 7 but Buemi decides against a lunge. Heading onto the final corner, Gunther sweeps round the outside of Buemi who started breaking too early and then failed to brake for Maserati and slams into the German’s rear wing. Gunther gets washed out wide and a drag race to the finish line between Gunther and Buemi for P3 is won by the Maserati driver.
A hectic and unpredictable race saw Jaguar collect a 1-2 finish. Maximilian Gunther gets his first points of the season with a spectacular P3. Champions leader Pascal Wehrlein’s 6th place finish gives him 8 points. Jake Dennis drops down to P5 in the championship following his collision with Da Costa and that promotes Nick Cassidy into P2 and Jean Eric-Vergne to P3. The NEOM McLaren’s end the first of two rounds at Berlin with no points and so do ABT Cupra, who had Nico Muller briefly running in the top 10, definitely could’ve made the most out of a chaotic race filled with incidents.
