BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver Jake Dennis made a lights-to-flag victory in Round six of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain. The British driver dominated the race, leading every single lap in the sun, with Andre Lotterer (TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E) and Alex Lynn (Mahindra Racing) second and third respectively.
Dennis started on pole position after this morning’s qualifying session where he was the fastest in a 1.31:855, ahead of second-place finisher Lotterer and third-place Lynn in the Mahindra. Lotterer got a three-place grid drop after the qualifying session, making him start fifth.
Lynn and Dennis were fighting in the first half of the race, sticking close to each other on the same strategy, when Lynn got hit from behind by ROKIT Venturi Racing driver Norman Nato: this allowed Dennis to pull away from the pack and run his own race, with Nato and Lotterer behind him. Lynn managed to pass Rene Rast (Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler) and Oliver Rowland (Nissan e.dams) for fourth place and third place once the 5-second penalty for Norman Nato came through at the checkered flag. Lynn scored his first podium and got the fastest lap for his efforts in the race. Andre Lotterer scored his first points for this season. They are now fifteenth and sixteenth in the drivers’ standings.
Rast is one of the biggest winners of this race: having started fourteenth, he finished sixth in the standings with a few masterful overtakes. He gains eight points for the championship, bumping him into sixth in the driver’s championship. He will be in Group 1 Qualifying at the Monaco E-Prix.
By contrast, NIO 333 Racing lost the most this race: they started in third and fourth but finished in eighth (Oliver Turvey) and seventeenth (Tom Blomqvist).
Rowland (Nissan) was in a long fight with Rene Rast and Alex Lynn but had to drop back a little towards the end of the race to save energy. He crossed the line with 0.0% energy left, according to the Formula E official broadcast. Edoardo Mortara (ROKIT Venturi) and Lucas Di Grassi (Audi Sport) round up the top ten.
Last year’s Team Championship winner DS Techeetah had a mixed race result: Jean-Eric Vergne finished in the seventh position, fighting his way through the field and giving himself six points for the championship but his teammate Antonio Felix Da Costa ended the race in twenty-second, just ahead of Alexander Sims (Mahindra Racing)
Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-EQ Formula E team), the second-place driver in the championship standings, was the only retiree from this race. He started seventeenth and steadily pushed himself into the top ten with the possibility of scoring points when he was involved in a collision with Sebastien Buemi (Nissan e.dams). The incident ripped off his front wing and he limped back to the pits. No penalty was announced for the collision.
The top five driver’s championship contenders finished outside of the points today. They did not lose any positions in the standings, neither in the team’s championship nor in the driver’s championship: Nyck de Vries (Mercedes-EQ) and Stoffel Vandoorne are still first and second with Sam Bird (Jaguar Racing) in third, Robin Frijns (Envision Virgin Racing) and Mitch Evans (Jaguar) in fourth and fifth.
Only two drive-through penalities were awarded in this race: oen for Alexander Sims at the start of the race for a technical infringement and one for Antonio Felix Da Costa for the improper use of his attack mode.
Race standings
POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME/GAP |
1 | 27 | Jake Dennis | GBR | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | 30 LAPS |
2 | 36 | Andre Lotterer | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E | +1.483 |
3 | 94 | Alex Lynn | GBR | Mahindra Racing | +2.428 |
4 | 22 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Nissan e.dams | +2.870 |
5 | 71 | Norman Nato | FRA | ROKIT Venturi Racing | +5.811 |
6 | 33 | Rene Rast | GER | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +8.122 |
7 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | FRA | DS Techeetah | +8.782 |
8 | 8 | Oliver Turvey | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +11.292 |
9 | 48 | Edoardo Mortara | CHE | ROKIT Venturi Racing | +12.014 |
10 | 11 | Lucas Di Grassi | BRZ | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | +12.405 |
11 | 23 | Sebastien Buemi | CHE | Nissan e.dams | +13.295 |
12 | 28 | Maximilian Gunther | GER | BMW i Andretti Motorsport | +13.594 |
13 | 37 | Nick Cassidy | NZL | Envision Virgin Racing | +14.329 |
14 | 10 | Sam Bird | GBR | Jaguar Racing | +15.151 |
15 | 20 | Mitch Evans | NZL | Jaguar Racing | +17.213 |
16 | 17 | Nyck De Vries | NLD | Mercedes-EQ Formula E | +18.444 |
17 | 88 | Tom Blomqvist | GBR | NIO 333 Racing | +18.885 |
18 | 99 | Pascal Wehrlein | GER | TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E | +19.274 |
19 | 4 | Robin Frijns | NLD | Envision Virgin Racing | +19.756 |
20 | 6 | Nico Muller | CHE | Dragon-Penske Autosport | +21.069 |
21 | 7 | Sergio Sette Camara | BRZ | Dragon-Penske Autosport | +32.069 |
22 | 13 | Antonio Felix Da Costa | POR | DS Techeetah | +59.698 |
23 | 29 | Alexander Sims | GBR | Mahindra Racing | +1.04.277 |
24 | 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | BEL | Mercedes-EQ Formula E | RET |