London E-Prix I: Jake Dennis feels right at home

Six different teams in Super Pole

After 5 years of absence from the calendar, the London E-Prix is back with a track laid out in the “ExCel London” exhibition center environment, of which only half of the course is covered. Special track conditions were expected in case of rain: drivers will have the opportunity to compete in qualifying on a partially wet track. As usual, the championship’s top contenders struggle when starting in the first group. Lynn takes advantage to give Mahindra pole position, the second of his career after the one he obtained in New York in 2017, while driving for the DS Virgin team. The top 6 is completed by Jake Dennis (BMW), Sebastien Buemi (Nissan), Sergio Sette-Camâra (Dragon), André Lotterer (Porsche), and Norman Nato (Venturi).

Maximilian Günther (BMW) will start from the last position on the grid after going off track and completely destroying his front left suspension. Jean-Eric Vergne (DS) is in 23rd place on the grid.

An eventful start proved fatal for Alexander Sims.

The track not favoring overtaking, the start is of paramount importance. The 24 drivers understood this well and we didn’t have to wait long after the first set of corners to witness some contacts. Alexander Sims (Mahindra), who started 8th, ended up hitting the wall, causing the only Full Course Yellow of a very smooth race afterwards. 1 kWh was also deducted from the amount of energy allocated to the teams for the race. The start of the race also saw Vergne and Günther receiving a 5-second Stop & Go penalty, as their teams had made changes to the car parts before the race. Sam Bird (Jaguar), who led the championship before the start, quickly retired due to damage suffered in the pack in the early corners.

Very quickly, Lynn and Dennis escape and take advantage of the gap created with the third man, Buemi, to activate their first Attack Mode together without losing any position. This mode must be activated twice, each time allowing a boost of 35kW for 8 minutes.

Winning strategy for Dennis

On a nearly dry track, Lynn decides to dive into the Attack Mode zone for the second time with 28 minutes to go. He logically loses a position in the process to Dennis, who manages to keep the advantage over the Mahindra driver for the next 8 minutes. The latter even locks up a wheel slightly. Dennis wastes no time, he dives into the activation zone himself while still leading and takes advantage of his 235kW of power to open up a gap of several seconds. He won’t be seen again.

Behind, the remaining places on the podium are valued dearly and it is a unleashed Nyck de Vries (Mercedes) who, after two perfectly controlled overtakings on Buemi and then Lynn, transforms a ninth place on the grid into second position in the race. Enough to delight Toto Wolff, present in the Mercedes EQ stand. Lynn secures the last step of the podium ahead of Buemi who, just like his teammate Oliver Rowland, will be disqualified for using too much energy.

Note the solid performance of Antonio Felix Da Costa (DS) who scored points for eighth place and thus climbed to second place in the championship behind Bird and ahead of Dennis, De Vries, Frijns (Envision Virgin). On the other hand, René Rast (Audi) set the fastest lap in the race. In the team standings, DS Techeetah and Envision Virgin Racing share the lead.