Lynn Takes Maiden FE Win In London After Di Grassi Black Flagged

Grid Talk Reporter 16:48 25/07/2021

Alex Lynn picked up his maiden Formula E race in the second London E-Prix after Lucas di Grassi was black-flagged from the race lead for driving through the pitlane under the safety car.

Just before half distance, defending champion António Félix da Costa found himself fed into the wall when trying to overtake Porsche’s André Lotterer on the start/finish straight - causing the second safety car of the race. Di Grassi drove through the pitlane from the lower reaches of the top 10 while the field was under the safety car and because of the short pitlane jumped into the lead ahead of long-time race leader and polesitter Stoffel Vandoorne in the Mercedes. 

Vandoorne’s attempts to reclaim the lead were quickly ended when Nissan e.dams’ Oliver Rowland - defending his third place from Vandoorne’s team-mate Nyck de Vries - locked up into the Turn 10 hairpin and ploughed into Vandoorne. The stewards handed Rowland a five-second time penalty while Vandoorne dropped outside of the top 10. At the front, de Vries was passed by Mahindra’s Alex Lynn for second place - in a reverse of race one where de Vries took P2 from Lynn late on in the race.

-Full event results

Lynn was unable to make an impression on di Grassi, who was slapped with a drive-through penalty for a safety car infringement. While it’s not illegal for cars to pit under the safety car, article 38.7 of the 2020/21 regulations states: “The pitlane entry and exit remain open and cars are free to pit provided that they stop in front of their pit’ [under safety car].” Audi is adamant that di Grassi did stop at his pit. Di Grassi didn’t take his drive-through penalty and he was disqualified via a black flag on the penultimate lap of the race. The initial classification after the race has di Grassi in eighth place - implying that the drive-through penalty has been converted into a 20-second time penalty. Di Grassi’s penalty leaves Lynn with his first FE victory, having made his debut at the New York E-Prix in July 2017.

The podium was completed by de Vries and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans who had a wild ride - including multiple collisions and a missed attack mode - to third place. De Vries now leads the championship heading for the Berlin finale. Envision Virgin’s Robin Frijns and Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche filled the top five, ahead of BMW i Andretti’s Maximilian Guenther. The top 10 was rounded out by Sérgio Sette Camara, Saturday winner Jake Dennis, who had to take a drive-through penalty on the penultimate lap of the race, and Joel Eriksson, who claimed his first point in Formula E.

The first safety car was deployed on lap five for an incident between Nissan e.dams’ Sébastien Buemi and Audi’s René Rast at the consecutive Turn 10/11 hairpins. Buemi ran into the back of Rast at the right-hand Turn 10 hairpin, they then collided again on the exit of the corner as Rast slammed into the wall and broke his front wing. Rast then veered into Buemi as both cars tried to negotiate the tight left-hand Turn 11 hairpin side-by-side, ultimately leaving Rast’s broken car stranded on track while Buemi was slapped with a 10 stop-go penalty for causing a collision. Pre-race championship leader Sam Bird failed to finish for the second race running after the Jaguar driver collided with Venturi's Norman Nato late on in the race. 

2021 London E-Prix 2 Classification