Jake Dennis becomes to World Champion on home soil after a twice red flagged race in London.
Photo credit: Formula E Media Bank / Sam Bagnall
The game is on. The second-to-last race of the Season 9 of the FIA ABB Formula E World Championship is about to start, and the stake are in all-time high today.
Before the start of the race, it’s Dennis with 24 points ahead of Nick Cassidy in P2 in standings, but after a strong qualifying performance today, it’s the Kiwi who will start the race from pole. Will this be enough for him to level the fight and head into tomorrow with real chance of being the crowned champion? Or will it be Dennis winning on home soil and ruining the dream for Cassidy?
We can’t really convey to you all of the emotions that are going through us in the media centre, but just know there’s a lot of them. The adrenaline and excitement are in. Let’s see how the fight will unravel in front of our eyes.
This is how the drivers will line up for the grid:
The lights are out in London and Cassidy gets out perfectly, and Dennis gets overtaken by Buemi! Its an Envision 1-2 right now! Contact for Dennis on the first laps, will this have effect on his performance? Evans tries to dive on Rast, but has to surrender to the McLaren driver, but he clears out Ticktum out of the way. After the first lap, the Top 10 was: Cassidy, Buemi, Dennis, Rast, Evans, Ticktum, Wehrlein, Bird, Mortara and Vandoorne in P10. Rene Rast and Mitch Evans go side to side, but it’s again the McLaren driver who’s ahead.
A few drivers taken their attack mode, and those drivers were: Vandoorne, Vergne, Sette Camara, Di Grassi, Frijns and Mehri. Next on for attack mode were: Ticktum, Nato and Gunther.
Mortara and Vandoorne were being investigated for causing a collision, for an incident in Turn 1 where Vandoorne rammed into the back of the Maserati.
Cassidy goes for attack mode, with a fantastic backing from Sebastien Buemi. Double yellow after an incident between Frijns, Sette Camara and Di Grassi, but all of them continued the race. Evans goes ahead of Dennis! Cassidy takes second attack mode already, ahead of most of the drivers, especially in the Top 7.
Dennis goes to take attack mode and he misses it! He falls behind Rast and he didn’t even activate it. Cassidy falls into P3, Evans takes P1 and Buemi keeps his P2. There is a double yellow in Turn 17, which might have something to do with Vergne DNF’ing.
Dennis overtakes Cassidy! The Kiwi falls back to P5, behind Evans, Buemi, Rast and Dennis. The Brit still didn’t take any of the attack mode yet, which might compromise his position later on. Cassidy goes ahead of Dennis! And he’s just behind his teammate Buemi. This race is stress on steroids.
Rast gets closer and closer to Evans, it’s getting very spicy there in the front! CASSIDY HAS AN ISSUE!He goes for a change of his front wing after contact with his own teammate, but now there is a safety car. Absolute chaos in London! As it stands now, its Evans, Buemi, Rast, Wehrlein, Dennis, Bird, Gunther, Vandoorne, Da Costa and Ticktum in P10. Cassidy is running in P19 with 19 laps to go, will he be able to recover?
The race restarts and Lotterer, Hughes and Di Grassi go for their attack modes. Wehrlein seems to be blocking Dennis, which is a weird move. We don’t really know what is happening anymore. DENNIS MISSES HIS ATTACK MODE AGAIN! He tries all over again and this time he’s able to activate ir.
Lotterer and Dictum are being investigated for an incident. Cassidy goes back to his garage and that is race done for the second driver in the championship standings. Dennis is currently P5, Wehrlein goes for attack mode but just like Dennis misses it and falls behind the Brit. As it stands now, Cassidy will fall back to P3 in championship, but Evans will be promoted to P2 and in real contention for the title. Lotterer receives a 5s penalty for the incident with Ticktum.
Bird tries to get ahead of Nato but the Frenchman is still ahead of the Brit. Da Costa and Gunther were also investigated for causing a collision. There is a real battle between Dennis and Wehrlein, but Dennis manages to stay ahead of the German by millimetres without putting each other into the wall. Dennis activates his second attack mode, and simultaneously there is a double yellow at Turn 16 and safety car is deployed – it’s Fenestraz out of the race and in the barriers. He was catapulted into it by going over another car. The team confirmed that Sacha is okay. Out of the two of us, at least he is.
Seven laps to go an its absolute mayhem at London ExCeL. In order to claim the championship today, Dennis would have to finish in P3. With 5 laps to go, he is in P5. After Rast fed Wehrlein into the wall, there is a possibility for him to get a penalty, which would promote Dennis to P4.
And just as we type this, there is a red flag. The drivers make it back to the pits and they will restart the race in the same gird lineup as before the red flag, which means it’s Evans in the front followed by Buemi, Da Costa, Dennis, Nato, Bird, Vandoorne, Gunther, Sette Camara, Mortara, Di Grassi, Hughes, Merhi, Ticktum, Lotterer, Rast and Wehrlein. The incident between Rast and Wehrlein has been noted by the FIA.
The drivers go back on track behind the safety car. As it stands, Dennis only has to overtake Da Costa in order to clench the title today. Rolling start ahead, and Evans and Buemi in P1 and P2 still have to take attack mode, which will surely promote Dennis.
Racing resumes and so far everyone makes it in one piece. Evans cows for attack mode and he remains ahead of Dennis! There is a yellow at Turn 3 caused by Jake Hughes, and here is only one added lap to the race.
THERE IS A RED FLAG. AGAIN. Buemi, Nato and Bird crash in the last corner, which literally causes a clog with now way through for all of the other drivers. This is insane. Everyone behind Bird is basically stuck. The drivers are going back to the pitlane. What on earth is happening?
There is a delay with restart due to the grid order – the top 3 technically did one more lap than everyone else, so what will be the solution from the FIA? The solution will be that everyone behind Dennis will go out behind the safety car to complete the additional lap, and then Evans, Da Costa and Dennis will rejoin the rest. Vandoorne and Merhi will start from the back of the grid due to repairs they’ve had during red flag.
We’re about go green again in ExCeL and let’s see how the remaining two laps will pan out. Evans stays ahead of Da Costa and Dennis. Last lap of action here in London today, and the Top 3 remained the same.
IT IS JAKE DENNIS WHO CLAIMS THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE IN THE PENULTIMATE RACE OF THE SEASON! WHAT A PERFORMANCE FROM THE BRIT THIS YEAR! What an absolutely insane race here today!
