De Vries Takes Maiden FE Win In Diriyah
Calum Gill 19:23 26/02/2021
Mercedes EQ' Nyck de Vries has taken his first win in Formula E and the first win of the 2021 season in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
The Dutchman, into his second season of electric racing, comfortably won, taking a clean sweep of the first round, topping all timing sessions, and leading every lap of the race under the lights, despite two safety car periods.
The manufacturer's powertrain wrapped up an effective 1-2, with customer team Venturi Racing driver Edoardo Mortara pulling a late move on Audi's René Rast to take second place.
De Vries made a very clean getaway to convert his pole position into the lead on the approach to Turn 1 as he stretched out an immediate 1.2-second advantage. His initial escape was aided by a poor start for second-starting Pascal Wehrlein. The Porsche driver then had to defend from Rast, which delayed the pair.
Rast made his move for second place with 30 minutes left. He passed Wehrlein around the outside on the approach to the Turn 18 chicane, which prompted Wehrlein to dive for his first use of the 235kW attack mode.
Fourth-starting Edoardo Mortara used his attack mode to devastating effect, pulling an astonishing double pass on the Jaguar of Mitch Evans and then Wehrlein.
Sam Bird's Horrendous Jaguar Debut
Sam Bird's first race for Jaguar ended in retirement after a collision with the Mahindra of Alex Lynn. Lynn appeared to pull across the track to leave Bird with nowhere to go and they span, ending up facing nose-to-nose, causing the first safety car of the race.
Lynn would retire almost immediately with broken front-left suspension, and Bird continued for some time before pulling into the pits after reporting a strange noise from his car.
That all allowed a recovering Alexander Sims to lead the Mahindra Racing charge in seventh, as yet another fanboost reward gave second Mercedes driver Stoffel Vandoorne fastest lap and eighth place.
Max Guenther's accident on the bobsleigh section brought out the safety car again. The German tagged the inside wall and subsequently went into the wall on the outside of the corner, breaking his suspension and bringing his night to an end.
Despite all of this, de Vries held on to take his maiden Formula E win by 4.1 seconds over Mortara in second and Evans in third.
Diriyah E-Prix 1 Results (32 Laps)
| 1. Nyck de Vries (Mercedes) | 46m44.765 |
| 2. Edoardo Mortara (Venturi) | +4.119 |
| 3. Mitch Evans (Jaguar) | +4.619 |
| 4. René Rast (Audi) | +4.852 |
| 5. Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) | +7.962 |
| 6. Oliver Rowland (Nissan) | +9.318s |
| 7. Alexander Sims (Mahindra) | +9.686s |
| 8. Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes) | +9.973 |
| 9. Lucas di Grassi (Audi) | +11.089 |
| 10. Oliver Turvey (NIO 333) | +15.518 |
The Rest
11. António Félix da Costa, 12. Jake Dennis, 13. Sébastian Buemi, 14. Norman Nato, 15. Jean-Éric Vergne, 16. André Lotterer, 17. Robin Frijns, 18. Tom Blomqvist, 19. Nick Cassidy, 20. Sérgio Sette Camara, 21. Nico Muller
Not Classified
Max Guenther, Accident, 23 laps completed
Sam Bird, Accident Damage, 22 laps completed
Alex Lynn, Accident, 16 laps completed
My Driver Of The Day: Oliver Turvey
