Formula E’s inaugural Valencia ePrix had a shambolic end to race 1 but a redemption for race 2. In between all the chaos we also had drivers starting on the back row scoring podiums and some debut victories. Here are those that dazzled and the struggle bus riders from a hectic weekend at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.
Race 1 – Top of the class:
Nyck de Vries – Qualifying: 3rd (started 7th) | Race: 1st
Where many drivers lost their cool in the wet conditions, Nyck was one of a few drivers to keep it. Carrying over a grid penalty from Rome and being in Group 1 qualifying, de Vries would have been delighted with a P7 start anyway, let alone making it into Super Pole.
The Dutchman had a fortunate start to the race, finding himself 4th on the opening lap after Porsche’s André Lotterer punted Sébastien Buemi at turn 9, which forced Venturi’s Norman Nato through the gravel in an attempt to avoid the action.
Nyck was up to P3 with 33 minutes left. This with a neat move around the outside of Mahindra’s Alex Lynn at turn 3, which then turned to P2 on the same lap with a lunge up the inside of BMW i Andretti’s Maximilian Günther at turn 12.
From there, de Vries comfortably sat P2 and had a front-row seat for the final lap carnage. Sweeping past Techeetah’s António Félix da Costa to take his second victory of the season. The Dutchman was the only one of the leading runners to have energy in hand after the safety car reduction to finish the race at near-racing speed.
The result moved Nyck back to the top of the Driver’s Championship with an 8-point lead over teammate Stoffel Vandoorne.
Nico Müller – Qualifying: 23rd (started 22nd) | Race: 2nd
What a race Nico had, surviving a drive-through penalty and being punted into the gravel trap twice to take a very unlikely debut podium in FE.
A disappointing qualifying left Nico starting 22nd, and his race got worse after a technical infringement left the Dragon / Penske Autosport driver with a penalty. From there Müller started climbing up the order but took two trips through the gravel; firstly by René Rast into turn 12 and secondly by Stoffel Vandoorne at turn 10.
Yet, after being through the wars Nico was 12th on the final safety car restart. He climbed 10 positions in two snail-paced laps to take a shock P2 and his best result by far in FE. This is also DPA’s first podium since Zurich in season 4. What makes this result even more spectacular is that the team is still running their season 6 powertrain after delaying its introduction to the next round in Monaco.
Nick Cassidy – Qualifying: 11th (started 10th) | Race: 4th
Simply finishing the race is an achievement, but Nick Cassidy had a mooted run inside the top 10 before the late-race carnage kicked off anyway. The Kiwi is handy in the wet and he showed his skills on Saturday with some efficient driving and bold overtakes on the likes of Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein to find himself sixth on the final restart.
Whilst he was passed by Müller and Vandoorne, Cassidy had 2% of energy for the final lap to capitalise on the sluggish drivers in front of him to take P4, his first finish inside the points in FE after taking pole in Rome. Nick is looking already at home in the series.
The struggle bus:
Formula E’s reputation
This was the perfect weekend to get Formula E naysayers on their side, a race at a permanent facility which is only the fifth occasion this has happened, all of the other ones having been on the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. It’s one of the biggest gripes to many motorsport fans against FE. Unfortunately, Saturday’s ending was a bit of a clown show and hasn’t done much to win over the critics.
In a chaotic race that saw five safety cars, all but three cars ran out of energy on the final lap, resulting in one of the most farcical race finishes in FE’s history. Nyck de Vries emerged as the winner, whilst two drivers came to a halt and another five were disqualified for their lack of energy, meaning there were only nine classified finishers.
In my opinion, both the race director and Techeetah need to take responsibility for Saturday’s events. Maths isn’t my forte but race leader da Costa had around 13% of energy before the safety car went in, when the energy reduction kicked in, he had 4%. Considering that the final safety car was only out for two laps, that seems a hefty reduction.
The energy reduction being miscalculated may be one thing, but ultimately da Costa and Techeetah forced the issue with his early restart. There were about thirty seconds left on the clock before the +1 lap, but the Techeetah driver was well within his rights to slow the field down to make it a single lap dash to the flag. It worked a treat for Vandoorne in the last round in Rome, and it would have done the same for António. His team really should have told him to back the pack up. In the end, the Portuguese driver was disqualified for energy overuse whereas in a 1 lap sprint he more than likely would have secured a lights to flag victory.
As someone that regularly stands up for the series and the unique aspects it brings to racing, Valencia race 1 was a shambles and a prime opportunity missed for FE to win the hearts and minds of its critics.
André Lotterer – Qualifying: 7th (started 5th) | Race: DNF
It’s safe to say the veteran is having a disastrous season, and his race 1 performance in Valencia epitomised that. He qualified well and just missed out on Super Pole, but was moved up the grid due to de Vries’ grid penalty and Stoffel Vandoorne’s disqualification. However, the Porsche driver was involved in two crashes in the race that culminated in him beached in the gravel at turn 1.
His first victim of Saturday was Nissan’s Sébastien Buemi on the first green flag lap after the safety car start. Lotterer was too focussed on battling Venturi’s Norman Nato. Which resulted in him outbraking himself into turn 9 and harpooning the Swiss driver into the gravel trap, bringing out an early safety car to retrieve the beached Nissan. The Porsche driver would receive a drive-through penalty for this collision.
Plummeting down the order, Lotterer was battling with the other Venturi of Edoardo Mortara (who was in Attack Mode) for P14 when he pitched the Venturi into a spin at turn 1. The Swiss/Italian driver managed to escape through the gravel whilst Andre retired on the spot, bringing out the fifth safety car of the day with a little over five minutes of the race left.
This was yet another bad day at the office for André and left him as the only driver with 0 points so far (this changed with a podium on Sunday). However, his new teammate for 2021, Pascal Wehrlein, is battling near the top of the Championship.
Maximilian Günther – Qualifying: 3rd (started 2nd) | Race: DNF
Another driver having a difficult time in 2021 is BMW i Andretti’s Günther. Like Lotterer, Maximilian had a decent qualifying and lined up P2 on the grid. Valencia is a track that Gunther does well at as well, topping most of the pre-season seasons for both Season 6 and Season 7.
Yet the wet conditions that dictated that race saw him go backwards pretty much from the start. Having slipped down from 2nd to 6th, Günther lost the rears and skidded into the gravel at turn 2, bringing out the third safety car of the day at half race distance.
This is the sixth time in 10 races that he’s crashed out. He may still be one of the youngest drivers on the grid but these are rookie errors that Günther should not be making in his third season in the series.
Race 2 – Top of the class:
Jake Dennis – Qualifying: 1st | Race: 1st
They said that qualifying is the least important at Valencia and that you don’t want to lead the race because of the slipstreaming effect, but Jake Dennis tore up those predictions on Sunday with a stellar debut victory.
Fortunate to find himself in Group 4 on a drying track, Dennis topped both Group Qualifying and Super Pole. His lap in the latter session was over eight tenths faster than second place.
Considering the effect of the slipstream, Dennis dominated the race. He held behind Mahindra’s Alex Lynn for much of the race and benefited from squabbles behind to pull enough of a gap to take his Attack Modes. He was also particularly efficient which helped his cause in race 2 in spite of being the car punching through the air for the following pack.
It looked straight forward to the viewer, but to lead a Formula E race from lights to flag is an incredible achievement, let alone being a rookie in just his 6th race for a team that doesn’t have the best package this season. That, and his P8 finish on Saturday has catapulted him from 23rd to 8th in the Driver’s Standings, whilst BMW leaps from bottom of the Team’s standings to 7th.
Alex Lynn – Qualifying: 3rd (started 2nd) | Race: 3rd (+FL)
Alex Lynn had a very good Sunday, having had a similar promising Saturday until the late-race chaos. Again, in Group 4, Lynn was comfortably into Super Pole and would post the third-best time in that session, albeit over a second slower than Dennis.
Inheriting Lotterer’s P2 due to his grid penalty, Alex settled into the chaser of the race and could have had a shot at victory had Venturi’s Norman Nato not punted him wide at turn 9 midway through the race.
Dropping down from P2 to P6, Lynn recovered to finish 4th on the road and took P3 with Nato taking a five-second penalty for that incident, shuffling the Frenchman down from 2nd to 5th in the classification. This was Lynn’s best result in FE and his maiden podium in the series, it was a deserved result as well, certainly after a tough start to his first full season at Mahindra.
René Rast – Qualifying: 14th | Race: 6th
The three-time DTM Champion is having a very good season so far, and has the measure of season 3 Champion Lucas di Grassi already. Rast qualified over six tenths faster than di Grassi in spite of being in Group 2, whilst the Brazilian was in Group 3 so had the advantage of a drier track.
Lining up 14th on the grid, Rast had a stellar race and made his way up to the fringes of the podium, which is not an easy feat when there are no full course yellows or safety cars to bunch the pack up. He eventually slipped from 4th to 6th by the end of the race as his energy consumption was higher than those around him, but a gain of eight places and eight points from race 2 means the German driver is 6th in the Championship despite failing to finish on the podium so far in season 7.
The struggle bus:
António Félix da Costa – Qualifying: 12th | Race: 22nd
Piloting the race 2 struggle bus is Season 6 Champion da Costa. A sour end to Saturday was partially his fault, but he had a really bad Sunday that has done no help in retaining his FE title.
A relatively mediocre qualifying left the Portuguese driver 12th on the grid, whilst teammate Jean-Éric Vergne was 7th, just over four tenths quicker in spite of both Techeetahs being in Group 2.
António’s progress was slow but he was up in the points before receiving a drive-through penalty for improper use of Attack Mode, ending any chances of a decent result.
Nyck de Vries – Qualifying: 19th (started 18th) | Race: 16th
Matching Saturday’s victory was always going to be an uphill task for the Dutchman, made difficult by being disadvantaged with track conditions in qualifying, but he was completely anonymous in race 2.
Considering that teammate Stoffel Vandoorne had made it up to 10th before his race-ending collision with Nissan’s Sebastian Buemi, it was disappointing to see Nyck struggling near the rear of the field. The Championship leader started two places above Vandoorne after Mitch Evans’ penalty, yet he finished a lowly 16th on Sunday.
The good news for de Vries is that none of the top 5 drivers in the Champion scored points on Sunday, meaning that his 8-point advantage still stands heading into the next round.
Mitch Evans – Qualifying: 16th (started 19th) | Race: 15th
The Jaguar driver had a weekend to forget in Valencia. Unfortunately, he’ll have to stick it out in Group 1 qualifying for another round as none of his rivals did much better. After ending his race on Saturday colliding with Dragon’s Sérgio Sette Câmara, Evans carried a three-place grid penalty for race 2.
Qualifying was decent, considering the circumstances, and Mitch rose from 19th to 9th during the race. In spite of having more energy than those around him, Evans fell back down the order to a lowly 15th and behind teammate Sam Bird who started 20th.
Jaguar really struggled in Valencia and was the only team to register 0 points across the weekend, costing them the top spot in the Team’s standings. Evans overall had a poorer weekend that Bird and will be looking to bounce back quickly in Monaco.
It was a real hit and miss weekend at a time I was rooting for Formula E to grasp its opportunity to win over its critics. Yet, the Championship is finely poised after six rounds with no one wanting to run away with it just yet.
Formula E heads to Monaco for its bi-annual race on Saturday 8th May. Considering they are finally racing on the full circuit layout, I’d say it is definitely worth tuning in for that one.
