De Vries & Mercedes Clinch Formula E Titles As Nato Claims Maiden Win
Grid Talk Reporter 16:02 15/08/2021
Nyck de Vries and Mercedes claimed the first Formula E world championship titles in the Berlin finale, whilst Norman Nato took his first win in the series over Oliver Rowland.
An eventful run to eighth for de Vries and third for team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne was sufficient to keep de Vries at the head of the drivers’ championship - despite 18 drivers having gone into the final weekend with a title shot - and to vault Mercedes from fifth to first in the teams’ standings. Jaguar and Mitch Evans had gone into the race as title favourites after Evans qualified six places clear of any of the other 12 remaining championship contenders by putting his car third on the grid.
But a sudden technical failure stopped Evans’s Jaguar at the race start, and it was violently collected by second-in-the-championship Edoardo Mortara’s Venturi. That prompted a red flag. Both drivers were unhurt, although Mortara is having precautionary checks in hospital because of the severity of the impact registered on his car. The crash appeared to set up a Jake Dennis versus de Vries title fight as they took the restart from eighth and 11th on the grid respectively. But the situation changed again immediately after the safety car pulled in to restart the race, with Dennis’s BMW slewing into the wall at the first corner of the racing after an apparent mechanical failure.
Nato managed to make a break up front via wise early use of attack mode, while polesitter Vandoorne lost out to Rowland by running wide as the attack mode deployments jumbled the order. Meanwhile de Vries made quietly effective progress up to fourth. Then with a quarter of an hour to go, the safety car was required because outgoing champion António Félix da Costa had been eased into the wall by Saturday winner Lucas di Grassi. While Nato successfully fended off a strong Rowland challenge at the restart, de Vries twice ran wide in attempts to take third from Alexander Sims’ Mahindra.
That set up a worrying moment for Mercedes as its two cars pincered André Lotterer’s Porsche during a wild shuffle prompted by de Vries’ error, but all involved escaped with just minor bodywork damage. De Vries still wasn’t taking it easy, and had another scare when an attempt to pass Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche for sixth ended in more contact. The points leader then took another hit on the final lap but made it to the flag in eighth place. Nato eased away to win by two seconds over Rowland and Vandoorne, with Lotterer, Sims and Wehrlein completing the top six.
Sam Bird snatched seventh from de Vries on the final lap, while a late charge took René Rast up to ninth in Audi’s farewell race ahead of qualifying hero Tom Blomqvist. Jean-Éric Vergne ended up outside the points in 11th having been pounced on by Rast on the last lap. Robin Frijns, Alex Lynn and Nick Cassidy all went into the race with title shots but finished 12th, 13th and 17th respectively. Di Grassi’s Audi FE career ended with 20th and last place after a penalty for the da Costa collision.
