Bird Wins In Diriyah Despite Terrible Lynn Crash
Calum Gill 19:16 27/02/2021
Britain's Sam Bird has maintained his record of winning a race in every season of Formula E's existence with a hard fought victory in the Diriyah desert.
In only his second race for Jaguar, the 34-year-old fought of the challenge of Envision Virgin's Robin Frijns to record his 11th win in the electric racing series.
Two time champion Jean-Éric Vergne completed the podium, only after he nearly went into the wall following contact with his teammate António Félix da Costa, who came home in fourth place.
The race was however finished early following a red flag for a horrendous shunt for Britian's Alex Lynn at the end of the back straight. His Mahindra appeared to overturn after contact with Jaguar's Mitch Evans and slam into the techpro at T18, in an accident reminiscent of Mark Webber's crash at Valencia in 2010. The retirement of Sébastian Buemi at T5 and almost simultaneously an accident between the NIO 333 of Tom Blomqvist and the BMW i Andretti of Max Guenther at the same place but just before the Lynn crash.
The aftermath of Alex Lynn's crash (credit: motorsport.com)
https://twitter.com/FIAFormulaE/status/1366002560889483266
The above link is to footage of the crash that Formula E released on Sunday.
Nick Cassidy impressed further on his maiden Formula E weekend, charging from 10th on the grid to take fifth at the flag. The two Dragon/Penske cars were able to remain in touch with the leaders in the early part of the race before being overtaken by the two DS Techeetah cars and Nick Cassidy's Envision Virgin, leaving Sérgio Sette Camara and Nico Muller sixth and seventh respectively.
René Rast, who failed to set a laptime in qualifying, took the final point in 10th for Audi, ahead of Mahindra's Alexander Sims. Sims' teammate Lynn has been taken to hospital for evaluation following his crash towards the end of the race, and the British driver is conscious and talking. Both Mahindra cars are also currently under investigation for an alleged throttle map infringement.
Both Mercedes EQ cars failed to score points after Nyck de Vries & Stoffel Vandoorne did not take part in qualifying due to safety concerns following Edoardo Mortara's crash in free practice on Saturday morning. De Vries does however maintain his lead in the championship by four points over Bird. In the teams championship, Jaguar lead with 40 points down to Mercedes, who trail by 7.
Where to next?
The next round of the championship takes place in the Italian capital city of Rome, on the 10th of April.
Diriyah E-Prix 2 Results (29 laps completed)
| 1. Sam Bird (Jaguar) | 39m50.836 |
| 2. Robin Frijns (Virgin) | +2.194 |
| 3. Jean-Éric Vergne (Techeetah) | +4.846 |
| 4. António Félix da Costa (Techeetah) | +6.900 |
| 5. Nick Cassidy (Virgin) | +9.079 |
| 6. Sérgio Sette Camara (Dragon) | +12.817 |
| 7. Nico Muller (Dragon) | +13.924 |
| 8. Oliver Turvey (NIO 333) | +15.523 |
| 9. Oliver Rowland (Nissan) | +16.389 |
| 10. René Rast (Audi) | +18.254 |
The Rest.
11. Alexander Sims, 12. Lucas di Grassi, 13. Tom Blomqvist, 14. Nyck de Vries, 15. Norman Nato, 16. Pascal Wehrlein, 17. André Lotterer, 18. Stoffel Vandoorne
Not Classified
Max Guenther (accident), Mitch Evans (accident), Alex Lynn (accident), Sébastian Buemi (accident), Jake Dennis (accident), Edoardo Mortara (did not start).
My Driver Of The Day: Nick Cassidy
