A great points harvest for DS Penske in Diriyah

With thirty-five points collected in Diriyah during the second ePrix of the season, the members of the DS Penske team could smile after the two races that were on the weekend’s schedule.

Read also:: ePrix de Diriyah – Race 1

And: ePrix of Diriyah – Race 2

From the very first qualifying session, the DS E-TENSE FE23 showed its full potential by securing pole position with Jean-Eric Vergne. The French driver took advantage of this opportunity to become co-holder of the highest number of pole positions in Formula E. He shares this record of 16 pole positions with the Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi.

In the race, Vergne couldn’t do anything to defend his first place against Jake Dennis. However, he was heroic in defending his position on the second step of the podium. On the other hand, after difficult qualifications, the other DS E-TENSE FE23 of Stoffel Vandoorne finished 14th in a very tight pack.

The next day for the second race, both DS Penske cars finished in the points. Vandoorne, a semi-finalist in the qualifying duels, crossed the finish line in 5th position, three places ahead of his teammate. This was enough to satisfy Eugenio Franzetti, the director of DS Performance, the competition department of the DS Automobiles brand.

« It was a positive weekend for the DS PENSKE team. Pole position and second place in race 1, and fifth and eighth places in race 2 bring us excellent points both in the constructors’ and drivers’ standings. The hard work done on the DS E-TENSE FE23 during the winter is paying off, but we know that there is still a lot of work to be done. We will take advantage of the long break before Brazil to work hard and get even closer to our competitors, » said the Italian manager.

On the driver side, satisfaction also prevails.

With Stoffel, we scored a lot of points in these two races, and compared to last year at the same time, I have a lot more points in the championship. I am very happy with the performance we showed, and the team spirit is very good. We were here to attack, and that’s what we did, and I think the best is yet to come,” rejoiced Jean-Eric Vergne, third in the drivers’ championship after three races.

Even though his first race in the outskirts of Riyadh was tough, Stoffel Vandoorne had a much better weekend as it progressed.

“As we know, qualifications are very important, and this time, we negotiated them well. In the race, we still lack a little something compared to the drivers ahead, but we were able to perform well, and we scored quite a few points during the weekend.” stated the Belgian driver, FE world champion in 2022.

Before the next round, which will take place in Sao Paulo on March 16th, DS Penske holds a solid second place in the team championship.