Review of the Paris ePrix: Frijns masters unpredictable weather and a dramatic scenario!
The eighth ePrix of the season rewards a new winner: Robin Frijns! The Envision Virgin Racing driver kept his cool to claim victory on a track that constantly alternated between dry and wet conditions. The full account of a day of racing full of twists and turns!
Almost no one saw it coming: Robin Frijns claims the Paris ePrix after a crazy day!
Everything started at 7:30 in the morning: the 22 competitors were on deck for the start of the first free practice session… on a track that had been soaked by rain overnight! An external factor that continued to challenge the drivers throughout the day…
Right from the start, several drivers were caught out during their first laps, and not just any drivers! Defending champion Jean-Eric Vergne (DS Techeetah) spun out on the main straight without any consequences. The same action but with more damage for Lucas di Grassi (Audi Sport), affecting the front wing. Worse, Sam Bird (Envision Virgin) ended up in the wall at the exit of the 14th corner, destroying the front-left of his car!
Absent from the second free session, the Englishman jeopardized the rest of his Saturday. From his garage, Bird watched his teammates on a track that had become dry: the opportunity to set fast lap times for Mitch Evans (Jaguar), winner in Rome and the fastest in FP2, with a time of 1’00”226.
The pole for Wehrlein on the track, before the disqualification, in favor of Rowland!
As since the beginning of the season, these qualifications were divided into five phases: the four preliminary groups, determining the six places for the subsequent super-pole. Arranged in championship order, the highest ranked started in the first group.
Among the heavy hitters, Jérôme d’Ambrosio (Mahindra) fared the best, with a time sufficient to be among the top six. Less success for André Lotterer (DS Techeetah), who finished in eighth place, less than a tenth away from the cut! Further down, Lucas di Grassi 11th in the final standings, Antonio Félix da Costa (BMW Andretti) 16th… and Mitch Evans, 20th on the grid, half a second from success.
In group 2, Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin), the future winner, placed himself in the top 6. Less in form, Jean-Eric Vergne completed an average lap, ultimately resulting in 14th position on the grid.
Group 3 was more competitive, with four fast drivers: Oliver Rowland and Sébastien Buemi, Nissan e.Dams teammates, Pascal Wehrlein (Mahindra), and Felipe Massa (Venturi). All of them made it to the super pole, alongside Frijns and d’Ambrosio. The last group made no changes to the top 6.
On a track dirtied by tree leaves, the super-pole was won by Wehrlein, at least on the track. Armed with spectacular driving, the German clocked a time of 1:00.383, a tenth and a half better than Rowland. This duo was followed by the other Nissan e.Dams, driven by Buemi, ahead of Frijns, Massa, and d’Ambrosio.
But the ranking experienced an off-track twist: an hour and a half after the end of the qualifying session, the two Mahindras were disqualified for non-compliant tire pressure. Wehrlein and d’Ambrosio were relegated to the back of the grid, leaving the two Nissans of Rowland and Buemi on the front row. However, this Saturday was far from over…
More consistent in the race, Frijns tames the Parisian deluge!
The X factor of this eighth ePrix was clearly the weather and its alternation between rain and sunshine. The 45-minute race started in the sun, but on a track that was still wet, washed by an earlier shower. The race management therefore decided on a rolling start rather than a standing start.
The start of the race was marked by Oliver Rowland’s mistake! The Briton came in too fast and hit the wall head-on at the 10th turn, after only two minutes. Sébastien Buemi took the lead. His domination lasted just ten short minutes: suffering from a slow puncture after contact with the wall, the Swiss went into the pit and dropped to the back of the standings. Buemi handed the lead to Frijns, who wouldn’t let it go until the finish!
Behind Frijns, what chaos!
Untenable, André Lotterer overtook Felipe Massa for second place, earned through a strong overtake in the third corner, wheel to wheel.
The race was seriously starting to heat up: in difficulty, the Brazilian was leading a small train composed of Daniel Abt, Maximilian Günther (Dragon Racing), di Grassi, and Oliver Turvey (NIO). But Abt quickly found an opening on Massa in the first corner. The race was on a knife-edge with the arrival of rain right behind! A shower violent enough for race direction to impose the Full Course Yellow for the first time. The start had been given 17 minutes earlier.
The race was then restarted, but very briefly. A multi-car pile-up occurred in the first corner. Drifting under braking, D’Ambrosio unintentionally pushed Bird against the wall. A few seconds later, Rowland also arrived in distress and took out Alexander Sims’ BMW Andretti and Gary Taffett’s HWA.
This incident prompted a second appearance of the Full Course Yellow, a temporary slowdown before the green flag, presented 15 minutes before the finish. Frijns maintained his lead, ahead of Lotterer and Abt. However, the Parisian rain decided to intensify: enough to shake up the standings a bit more midway.
Then in seventh, Massa dropped out of the top 10: pushed out by Turvey. Meanwhile, behind, Edoardo Mortara missed and landed on Alex Lynn’s Jaguar, right before the second snail sequence. This incident neutralized the race with a third Full Course Yellow and the deployment of the Safety Car.
Audaciously, the race management still released the competitors 2 minutes before the finish, in the sprays of water kicked up by the drivers. The last madness of this completely crazy ePrix: d’Ambrosio fighting, slides and ends up in the wall at the first corner, before being hit from behind by José Maria Lopez’s Dragon! This incident definitively locked the standings and crowned Robin Frijns, the winner of this 2019 Paris ePrix! The Envision Virgin Racing driver thus claims the first victory of his Formula E career, after 30 races since his debut in 2015.
The Dutchman makes a double strike, taking the lead in the drivers’ championship, with 81 points on the board. On the podium, Frijns could savor his performance with the Invalides in the background. Beside him on the Parisian podium, accompanied by two German drivers: André Lotterer, once again second after the Rome ePrix, and Daniel Abt, celebrating his second podium of the year, following the Santiago ePrix in Chile.
Here is the full ranking of this Paris ePrix:
Your full results from the 2019 #ParisEPrix – which driver impressed you most today? #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/LdyARVJkgl
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 27 avril 2019
Among the French, the results were rather mixed: Jean-Eric Vergne made a brave comeback to take sixth place. Tom Dillmann retired in the middle of the meeting but secured the fastest lap on a track that was nearly dry. Yes, the weather clearly played with Formula E’s nerves: this Paris ePrix will go down as the first real wet race in the history of the discipline!
Long live the streak! 🎱 #ABBFormulaE #ParisEPrix pic.twitter.com/r5o1Mfji2Y
— ABB Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) 27 avril 2019
From our special correspondent in Paris
