Mortara Beats Frijns To Diriyah Win As De Vries Struggles
Calum Gill 18:29 29/01/2022
Edoardo Mortara claimed victory in the second Formula E race of the season-opening Diriyah E-Prix weekend as defending champion Nyck de Vries was unceremoniously shuffled from pole to 10th.
Mortara took the chequered flag in a rather underwhelming fashion as an enthralling multi-car fight to the lead was ended by a late-race safety car. Alexander Sims lost control of his Mahindra through the high-speed Turn 5 left-hander and the safety car was required to recover his car with just under 10 minutes of the race remaining. After a relatively slow recovery, the race was eventually restarted on the final lap but only for what was essentially the run in and out of the final corner. Formula E’s new extra time rule was not applied because the safety car ended within the final five minutes of the race. It meant Mortara takes his third Formula E victory and his first since the second Puebla race last June, having triumphed in a closely-fought contest.
Defending series champion de Vries claimed pole for race two despite what he labelled a “rubbish lap”. He had already dominated the opening race after his Mercedes EQ team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne missed the attack mode activation sensors. De Vries held the lead in the opening stages of race two, but he was passed by Lucas di Grassi around the outside in robust fashion at the Turn 18 right-hander just before half distance. The duo made contact multiple times through the corner and the move was investigated by the stewards but no action was taken. Mortara was able to repeat his Venturi team-mate’s move in a cleaner fashion on the next lap and then passed di Grassi, whose attack mode had run out.
De Vries’ slide down the order continued as he dropped to fourth when he took his attack mode and then came off second best when duelling with Jean-Éric Vergne, once again into the Turn 18/19 complex. The contact lost de Vries momentum and he ended up sliding down to ninth place. It left the Venturi duo and Frijns to battle it out at the front of the field with Frijns passing di Grassi for second with around 10 minutes of the race remaining. The safety car was then called to recover Sims’ car and their battle was prematurely ended. Frijns took second place ahead of di Grassi, who earned a podium on his first weekend racing for a team other than the Abt-run Audi outfit.
André Lotterer was able to avoid a repeat of his race one slide down the order to pick up fourth place for Porsche, ahead of Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis and two-time Formula E champion Vergne. Vandoorne recovered from his poor qualifying to move from 12th to seventh ahead of Mahindra’s Oliver Rowland who picked up his first points of the year. Pascal Wehrlein made it two Porsches in the top 10 in ninth place ahead of de Vries who had to settle for a single point after a bruising race.
Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, who clipped the wall in qualifying, just missed out on a point in 11th place ahead of series rookie Oliver Askew and 2019-20 Formula E champion António Félix da Costa. The lack of a proper safety car restart meant Evans’ team-mate Sam Bird was unable to make the most of an energy-saving race. He came home in 16th place having started at the back. Antonio Giovinazzi’s tricky Formula E debut concluded with a 21st place finish for the Dragon Penske team.
