The all-electric series was back home for the first time since 2016. A double-header took us through the ExCeL arena and the streets of London. With the Championship finely poised between pretty much half the grid, and some typical British weather, there was plenty of drama to shape the standings before the final round in Berlin in August.
Here’s the top of the class contenders and struggle bus riders from rounds 12 and 13 of the 2020/21 season.
Race 1 – Top of the class:
Jake Dennis – Qualifying: 2nd | Race: 1st
The Nuneaton-born driver brought it home after a truly dominant display. Dennis shone in qualifying and lined up P2, albeit just under three-tenths off poleman Alex Lynn.
Jake would stick with Lynn for the majority of the race, but a couple of errors from the Mahindra driver gave Dennis a two-second lead during the second wave of Attack Mode activations. During Lynn’s second use he was closing the gap back up to Dennis, who would be able to activate it and still come out in front.
The BMW i Andretti driver took the lead with 18 minutes of the race left and didn’t look back from there, crossing the line with a 5.3-second margin over Mercedes driver Nyck de Vries in P2. Dennis became the third driver to take multiple wins this season, which is not a bad accomplishment considering he is a rookie.
Dennis’ performance vaults up from 15th to 3rd in the Driver’s standings, just two points behind Championship leader Sam Bird, whilst BMW is now close to 15 points off Techeetah, who lead the Team’s Championship.
Nyck de Vries – Qualifying: 9th | Race: 2nd
After a diabolical few rounds for the Mercedes EQ team in general, they have bounced back pretty well in London, exemplified by Nyck’s rise through the field on Saturday.
Qualifying a subdued 9th, he was at least ahead of teammate Stoffel Vandoorne, although the Belgian had no running in Saturday’s Free Practice after crashing on his outlap. In the race, de Vries found himself up into 8th in the opening exchanges as a first-lap safety car was called following a crash for Mahindra’s Alexander Simms.
From there, the Dutchman dispatched Audi’s Lucas di Grassi and Dragon / Penske’s Sérgio Sette Câmara during the first wave of Attack Mode activations, finding himself up to 5th and later claiming 4th away from André Lotterer at turn 1.
Nyck wasn’t finished there though, he pulled a satisfyingly clean lunge up the inside of Nissan’s Sébastien Buemi at turn 10 to take P3 away from the Swiss driver. He would repeat that move on Mahindra’s Alex Lynn with the aid of Fanboost to take 2nd.
With his third podium of the season, de Vries moved up to P4 in the Championship and only 4 points off Bird. This is remarkable considering his rather anonymous rounds in Puebla and New York.
André Lotterer – Qualifying: 5th (+topped Group Qualifying) | Race: 4th
I’ve been one of André’s harshest critics this season, this mainly due to his involvement in a number of incidents and generally being outshone by teammate Pascal Wehrlein. I just expected a lot better than what he has shown thus far in his second season at Tag Heure Porsche. He has had an upturn in form over recent races though, one of a few to achieve a double points finish in New York last time out, but his London ePrix race 1 was especially strong.
Topping Group Qualifying was a really positive step for Lotterer, although he wasn’t able to repeat that for his Super Pole lap, so he had to settle for P5. Which was over six-tenths of poleman Lynn.
The German made a strong start to the race with an important overtake on Sette Câmara to take P4 in the opening corners. He couldn’t keep de Vries behind but had a near-race long squabble with the Audi duo of René Rast and Lucas di Grassi.
He crossed the line a solid 5th but was elevated to P4 after Nissan’s Buemi was disqualified for energy overuse, the result moving Lotterer closer to the midfield battle in the Championship.
René Rast – Qualifying: 13th | Race: 5th (+FL)
The Audi man has been one of the stars of the season considering his relative inexperience in Formula E, and with Audi withdrawing at the end of the season his current level of performance is exactly what he needs to stay on the grid next season.
He was fastest out of the Group 1 qualifiers, meaning that P13 was a particularly excellent result considering the track evolution. His incredible race pace and energy management saw Rast take 8 places.
There may have been some team orders as neither René nor teammate Lucas di Grassi quite had enough to get past Lotterer, but a double-points finish and taking the fastest lap point for the fifth time this season means he’s got more solid points to bank on for a potential shot at the Championship in the team’s home race weekend in Berlin.
The struggle bus:
Nissan e.dams
Of all of the teams this season, I’d argue that Nissan have been the biggest disappointment. Having finished Season 6 quite strong with four podiums across the Berlin bonanza, the outfit have only had one podium this season, even that needed a penalty for Pascal Wehrlein in the Puebla race 2.
They scored a respectable P4 and P10 finish for Sébastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland in the first London race, but then the team suffered a double disqualification for the second time this season. Both cars exceeded the maximum power usage during the race so it was no surprise to see their finishes scrubbed from the record.
For a team like Nissan this is just another silly team error, after the tyre mix-up in Puebla race 1, and Rowland being one of many to fall foul in the fiasco in Valencia race 1 – it’s really no surprise that they are losing the talented Yorkshireman at the end of the season, because they’ve lost a chunk of points due to these errors.
Maximilian Günther– Qualifying: DNQ | Race: 18th
The New York ePrix race 2 winner looked to be starting the weekend strongly by topping Saturday morning’s Free Practice session. However his weekend unravelled with a crash in Qualifying that meant that the BMW i Andretti driver didn’t get a chance at setting a competitive lap time.
With component changes required, the German had to serve a 10-second stop and go penalty during the race. A near-impossible shot at points would be dashed with that trip to the pits. He came home a lowly 18th in the end and had to watch his teammate celebrate a home victory.
Race 2 – Top of the class:
Alex Lynn – Qualifying: 3rd (+topped Group Qualifying) | Race: 1st
The Mahindra driver did a full 180 from his result on Saturday. After having taken pole and finishing 3rd, he did the opposite on Sunday. It was a measured drive from the Mahindra. Whilst there were some huge slices of luck for Alex, you make your own luck in motorsport.
Lynn spent the majority of the race battling Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries over third place as Stoffel Vandoorne ran a comfortable race at the front. A series of unfortunate events for the front runner would change the shape of the race.
Not only would Audi try an audacious strategy to pit under the second safety car period, which moved Lucas di Grassi from 8th to the lead, on the restart lap Vandoorne was punted off by Nissan’s Oliver Rowland at turn 10.
This moved Lynn up to second, and with di Grassi being given a drive-through penalty that later turned into a black flag, Alex picked up the pieces to win his first FE race at the 40th time of asking. It was an excellent way for Lynn to finally reach the top step of the podium in front of the home fans and to banish his disappointment from Saturday.
Robin Frijns – Qualifying: 8th | Race: 4th (+FL)
Another excellent performance from the Envision Virgin driver, who showed many how overtakes could actually be completed cleanly on the track in London.
Starting in P8 was a solid performance from the Dutchman, and he started making moves immediately, picking off both Wehrlein and Günther at turn 10 during the Attack Mode activations. Allowing him to rise up a couple of places. He then challenged valiantly to take the final podium spot off Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, but couldn’t quite get past.
The result moves Frijns up to P2 in the Driver’s standings just 6 points off new Championship leader Nyck de Vries. Which is thoroughly deserved as Robin has been arguably the most consistent driver this season.
Joel Eriksson – Qualifying: 15th | Race: 10th
There were a few other candidates, particularly the other Dragon / Penske of Sérgio Sette Câmara, who had good enough performances to warrant a place in the top of the class list, but I have to give a deserved shoutout to Joel.
Not only has he come in at late notice to finish the season off in place of Nico Müller, but at a team that admittedly isn’t quite on the level of the rest of the field. With only four races under his belt before London, Eriksson’s performances this weekend were decent.
Qualifying 10th and 15th for the pair of races is higher than expected, and race 2 was a case of surviving for Joel whilst everyone around him lost their cool.
Sure, a number of incidents helped Eriksson massively, but he defended well from the likes of Virgin’s Nick Cassidy and Sam Bird, hanging on to the fringes of the top 10 for the majority of the race.
He crossed the line 11th, but a penalty for ROKiT Venturi’s Edoardo Mortara means that the Swede scored his first point in FE by inheriting 10th (it satisfyingly means that every driver now has points this season, which is an extra reason to celebrate).
The struggle bus:
Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
Putting the Audi in audacity for *that* strategy of pitting di Grassi under the Safety Car, it so nearly came off for the team, but unfortunately the Brazilian didn’t quite come to a complete stop in the box.
Having jumped from 8th to lead the race, Lucas would receive a drive-through penalty despite Team Principle Alan McNish’s best efforts to run to the Stewards to appeal.
Bizarrely though, the team didn’t inform di Grassi of his penalty. So he was black-flagged on the penultimate lap. The team were later fined €45,000 for the incident. Whilst the race was entertaining, it did take the shine off many other strong performances, as this debate dominated the final half of the race.
Sébastien Buemi – Qualifying: 11th | Race: 13th
There are a fair number of drivers that could make this list in race 2 so I’m just going to pick the biggest offenders in the rather expensive game of bumper cars that happened on Sunday.
First up is Nissan’s Sébastien Buemi, who showed Audi’s René Rast the wall on the exit of turn 10 early in the race. Making contact with the barriers, Rast wasn’t able to negotiate the hairpin at turn 11 and clattered the side of Nissan, ending the German’s race on the spot with major front suspension damage and bringing out the first safety car of the day.
Sébastien received a 10-second stop and go penalty for the incident, which was on the hefty side, but it comes to no consolation for Rast who was having another decent weekend. Buemi would come home 13th despite the late-race dramas – resulting in another pointless weekend for the Season 2 Champion.
André Lotterer – Qualifying: 16th | Race: 17th
What was I saying about being involved in silly accidents, this one in race 2 was really disappointing to see unfold.
Battling over 12th place the Porsche driver aggressively defended from Techeetah’s António Félix da Costa. The defending driver overstepped the mark however, as the Portuguese driver was forced into the pit wall.
With front left suspension being ripped off, the Season 6 Champion skated into the barriers at turn 1, bringing out a second safety car. Lotterer escaped undamaged but was given a Drive-Through penalty for causing the crash and would finish down in 17th.
António had some rather harsh words for the veteran, calling him a “sore loser” and to be honest I can fully understand that – having seen what has unfolded with Lotterer this season in particular.
After all the action in 2021, we’re down to the final round in Berlin. Mercedes’ Nyck de Vries returned to the summit of the Championship after a double P2 finish in London, whilst Envision Virgin moved into P1 in the Teams’ standings.
Can they claim the crown at Tempelhof on the weekend of the 14th and 15th August, or will some more unpredictability mean someone else will steal it at the eleventh hour? Definitely tune in to see how it pans out, especially with rumours of a potential spot in F1 for some of the drivers adding to the excitement.
Oh, the Berlin track is going to run in reverse for the second race just to spice things up!
