Racetrackmasters

Mahindra Formula E driver Alex Lynn has escaped serious injury after what has been described as an “aeroplane crash” at the Diriyah E-Prix. The second night race in Saudi Arabia was prematurely Red-flagged following a nasty accident involving Lynn and Jaguar’s Mitch Evans as they battled over 14th place in the closing stages. While the crash was not broadcast live with the TV feed instead focusing on a separate accident involving BMW’s Maximilian Gunther and NIO333’s Tom Blomqvist further up the road, it is understood that Lynn was sent airborne after making contact with the rear of Evans’ car. Lynn’s Mahindra flipped upside down and landed on its roll hoop before skidding along the ground and coming to rest up against the Turn 18 TecPro barriers. The Briton was taken to hospital for evaluation but was later discharged having suffered only “some bumps and bruises” according to Mahindra team principal Dilbagh Gill, who accompanied Lynn to the hospital. “The most important thing is that Alex is ok after his accident,” Gill said. “It was a nasty accident, but it’s testament to the ongoing work that Formula E and the FIA do around safety that Alex only suffered some bumps and bruises and will be back racing with us in Rome.

Sam Bird has maintained his record of being the only driver to have won an E-Prix in every season of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship by racking up his 10th E-Prix victory in Round 2 of the 2021 FE season. Robin Frijns got away cleanly from the pole position to fend off the attacks from behind. Starting from the third spot, Sam Bird made a clean move on the second-placed Sergio Sette Camara, overtaking the Brazilian at Turn 2. After the first lap, the order was: Frijns, Bird, Sette Camara, Oliver Turvey, Nico Mueller, Tom Blomqvist, Jean Eric Vergne, Antonio Felix Da Costa, Sebastien Buemi with Nick Cassidy completing the top 10. Despite the excellent qualifying speed of the NIO 333 team, Turvey and Blomqvist were unable to match the pace of the leading drivers. The British-Swedish made an error which saw him drop down the order to eighth. In the meantime, the lead duo drew out two seconds on Sette Camara in third, with Turvey running a collected race in fourth with Mueller kept at arm’s length. As Frijns activated his attack mode, he lost the lead to Bird, but was able to hold off Sette Carama. Using his power boost of 35kW, the Dutchman passed the Brit into Turn 18. Bird also took his attack mode, but that did not work out as expected as he lost second place to Sette Camara, slipping down to P3. Using the attack mode-induced chaos, Frijns pulled out a two-second gap. In the meantime, Vergne continued his charge towards the front. The two-time Formula E champion passed Sette Camara for third. Just as this manoeuvre happened, a Full Course Yellow was diployed after BMW Andretti’s Jake Dennis was crunched by Pascal Wehrlein’s Porsche. On Lap 22, Bird did make an important move at Turn 18 stick when he overtook Frijns. Behind the leading duo, the DS Techeetah pair came together with Vergne coming out on top in third. Bird kept his advantage ahead of Frijns, but the final drama fell away due to a contact between Maximilian Guenther and Mitch Evans.The red flag meant handed the win Bird with the Briton taking the triumph in front of Frijns, Vergne, Da Costa, Cassidy, Sette Camara, Mueller, Turvey, Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams), and Rene Rast (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler) on track. However, a post-race drama unfolded as Vergne and Rast were stripped of their point-scoring positions. Both drivers were handed twenty four second penalties as neither used their second ATTACK MODE activation. This demoted the pair to 12th and 17th through no fault of their own. Speaking of his maien victory with Jaguar, Bird added: “I was a bit emotional in the car. It was a big move and a big step for me moving away from what was my family in Envision Virgin Racing to join Jaguar Racing, but they’ve welcomed me with open arms and I’m pleased to deliver this win. „The whole point of the opening two rounds was to come here and score decent points and if you’d said I’d come away with 25 points, I’d have taken that. Robin was so respectful and a pleasure to race against which is exactly what you’d expect of his calibre. It was really, really good.” After starting on Julius Baer Pole Position and being engaged in a race-long battle under the floodlights with his former team-mate, Frijns finally crossed the line in second. “I’m really happy today, especially after having such a difficult day yesterday,” the Dutchman said. „The team did an amazing job to turn it all around. „Hopefully we can keep this form for the rest of the season. We might need to keep working on the race pace as Jean-Eric and Antonio were closing on me towards the end. If we keep having good qualifying sessions, we are going to have a good season.”

Jean-Eric Vergne has lost his Diriyah ABB FIA Formula E World Championship podium after being hit by one of nine post-race penalties issued on Saturday night. Vergne, who finished third, is one of three drivers penalised for failing to take the second of the mandatory two attack mode deployments, with Rene Rast and Tom Blomqvist also affected. The trio have been given 24s time penalties in lieu of the drivethroughs that would have been imposed in the race. All three were caught out by the sudden end of the E-Prix, which spent a long period under a safety car following Alex Lynn’s huge accident before being red-flagged with just over two minutes to go. Vergne wrote on social media that the red flag had made it “impossible for me to respect the rule”. DS Techeetah driver Vergne drops from third to 12th, with his reigning champion team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa elevated to the podium in his place. The pair had a wheelbanging battle in the middle of the event and lost touch with leaders Sam Bird and Robin Frijns as a result. Rast also loses a points finish as his Audi was 10th on the road. NIO333’s Blomqvist was originally 13th having been punted into a spin by Maximilian Gunther moments before Lynn’s crash unfolded. Rast and Blomqvist get a second 24s penalty apiece for going too fast under the earlier full course yellow prompted by Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis colliding. They tumble to 17th and 18th, last of the classified finishers. Vergne’s demotion is one of two changes affecting the top five, as rookie Nick Cassidy also gets a 24s penalty for the same FCY offence as Blomqvist and Rast. Envision Virgin driver Cassidy drops to 14th as a result. The penalties mean Sergio Sette Camara and his Dragon Penske Autosport team-mate Nico Mueller complete the top five, and Oliver Turvey gets sixth place for NIO333. Friday race winner Nyck de Vries also moves into the points, leaping from 14th to ninth behind Oliver Rowland and Lucas di Grassi. De Vries had dominated the event through Thursday and Friday, before all the Mercedes drivers were ordered to sit out race two qualifying while the cause of Edoardo Mortara’s huge practice crash was investigated. His Venturi-run customer Mercedes had ploughed into a wall due to a brake problem that struck following a practice start at the end of the session. The Mercedes were allowed to race having made software changes to prevent a repeat of the issue, but de Vries was only able to make it up from 20th on the grid to 14th on the road. He was still able to take the bonus point for fastest lap, but reaching ninth means he now holds a seven-point championship lead over race two winner Bird. Porsche driver Wehrlein inherits the final point. The eighth penalty was to Mahindra’s Alexander Sims. He took the flag in 11th behind eventual seventh-place man Rowland, but a 24s addition for a technical infringement involving the throttle map leaves him 15th. There was also a penalty issued in the form of a grid demotion for the next race, which is scheduled for Rome on the second weekend of April. BMW’s Maximilian Guenther gets the grid drop for crashing into NIO333 driver Tom Blomqvist moments before Lynn’s crash effectively ended the race.

Mercedes EQ driver Nyck De Vries delivered an assured lights-to-flag drive to win the season-opening Diriyah E-Prix and take his first Formula E victory.Starting on pole after a dominant qualifying performance, the Dutchman earned Mercedes a second consecutive win after they won the final race of the 2019-20 season in Berlin. De Vries was fastest in both practice sessions and throughout qualifying and rarely looked under pressure, despite the efforts of Edoardo Mortara who came second in the Venturi. Jaguar’s Mitch Evans rounded out the podium, having come out on top after a gripping battle with Rene Rast of Audi, who had to settle for fourth. The race had got off to a fairly restrained start, with De Vries leading away from Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein, who started alongside him on the front row, Rast and Mortara. Wehrlein’s race came apart though as he was passed by Rast for second, before being on the receiving end of a stunning double pass on the back straight by Mortara, who jumped from fifth to third in one move, before taking second from Rast when the three-time DTM champion took attack mode. The German’s day nearly got worse as he began to feel pressure from Mahindra’s Alex Lynn and Jaguar’s Sam Bird, but the two British drivers clashed, forcing both to retire and bringing out the safety car. De Vries had an excellent restart and extended his lead before taking attack mode, a strategy that worked perfectly as shortly after BMW’s Max Guenther hit the wall and brought out another safety car which came in with just six minutes remaining. Immediately after the restart, Mortara took attack mode, falling behind Rast in the process, but he quickly reversed that to secure his second-place finish, with Evans snatching the final podium position with just a few laps to go. Wehrlein finished fifth, while Oliver Rowland of Nissan e.dams claimed sixth after a strong drive from 11th on the grid, just ahead of Mahindra’s Alexander Sims in seventh. De Vries’ teammate Stoffel Vandoorne came eighth, with Audi’s Lucas Di Grassi and NIO 333’s Oliver Turvey claiming the final two points positions. Last year’s champion Antonio Felix Da Costa finished just outside the points in 11th, with Jean Eric-Vergne stuck in 15th, as both failed to fully recover from a difficult qualifying session. Formula E returns tomorrow for the second race of the 2020-21 season as the drivers tackle the Diriyah Street Circuit once again. Qualifying gets underway at 4 pm local time ahead of an 8 pm local time start.

Nyck De Vries has ended the first practice session of the season fastest for Mercedes in Diriyah after setting 1.08.693 six-tenths clear of Andre Lotterer in the Porsche. The practice session was moved to Thursday to allow the teams and drivers to get some practice laps under the floodlights ahead of the first night race in Formula E’s history. In the final ten minutes of the session the majority of the field turned the motor up to 250kW. De Vries managed to get a clean lap in early without any traffic to set his fastest time. Lotterer set a 1.09.281 to end the session second for Porsche in a season where the German manufacturer will want to make a step up after a solid first season. Lucas Di Grassi ended the 45-minute session third fastest after setting a 1.09.327. The season four champion is in talks with at least two teams ahead of season eight when Audi depart the all-electric championship at the end of season seven. Edoardo Mortara finished fourth for Venturi ahead of Oliver Rowland who was fifth in the Nissan and Alex Lynn finished the session sixth for Mahindra. Mitch Evans was the lead Jaguar driver in seventh ahead of reigning champion Antonio Felix Da Costa was eighth fastest for Ds Techeetah who are running their season six powertrain. Robin Frijns finished ninth for for Envision Virgin Racing and Maximilian Gunther ended the session in tenth fastest for BMW. Alexander Sims finished 11th for Mahindra with Stoffel Vandoorne finishing in 12th in the second Mercedes. Tom Blomqvist was 13th for the NIO 333 team with Rene Rast in 14th. Jean-Eric Vergne was 15th ahead of Nico Muller and Pascal Wehrlein who is making his return to the series after leaving Mahindra in June. Sergio Sette Camara was 18th in the Dragon ahead of Sébastien Buemi. Sam Bird was 20th in the second Jaguar with Oliver Turvey in 21st in the second NIO 333 car. The three rookies ended the session at the back of the field with Norman Nato in 22nd, Nick Cassidy in 23rd and Jake Dennis in 24th.