Formula E’s return has seen Nyck De Vries achieve a perfect performance on his way to his maiden victory for Mercedes EQ.
De Vries lit up the series’ first ever night race, after starting on pole position and remaining in control despite the chaos around him.
The Dutch driver’s performance today has been nothing short of perfection, topping all practice and qualifying sessions and winning in a dominant lights-to-flag display.
He said he was: “Very pleased anyways with the whole weekend so far, we’ve been strong from FP1. To be able to translate it into the race was very satisfying because it wasn’t very easy with so many safety cars.
“Also, the pace was very unpredictable at the start of the race, so it was difficult to know how we could manage the energy and there was quite a lot of communication going on,” de Vries added.
A clean getaway off the line saw the Mercedes driver stretch into a 1.2-second advantage as second-place Pascal Wehrlein struggled off the line and was forced to defend from Audi’s Rene Rast.
However, the race was not without issues for de Vries. Concerns on overconsumption prevented him from pulling clear as he drove with 1% less useable energy, whilst managing two safety car restarts.
Regarding the energy consumption issues, he said: “Well, we were under, over, we were a bit all over the place and actually at the first safety car I thought we were in a really good position and then I got informed that Rast was 1% up, so then I was a bit confused.”
As de Vries managed his energy, Rast set to work passing Wehrlein around the outside into Turn 18. However, he was never able to close in on the leading driver, with de Vries storming home with a 4.1 second lead.
In a stunning display of race craft, Edoardo Mortara used his attack mode to dart through the gap between Mitch Evans in the Jaguar and Wehrlein.
The astonishing double overtake was remarkable, with the gap virtually no bigger than his car.
A collision between the Mahindra of Alex Lynn and the second Jaguar of Sam Bird saw the safety car deployed with less than half of the race remaining.
Lynn appeared to pull across the track in front of Bird, as the Jaguar lunged for the inside line. Both cars span, ending up nose-to-nose.
Both drivers were eventually forced to retire, with Lynn retiring immediately with broken front-left suspension.
After the safety car period ended, Rast was able to take back second from Mortara after using his attack mode.
However, Maximillian Guenther’s heavy crash into the apex barrier saw the safety car deployed once more.
Rast then fell into the clutches of Mortara and Evans, who were able to pass the Audi for second and third, respectively.
Wehrlein dropped off towards the end of the race, ending up three seconds behind Rast in fifth. Oliver Rowland led the Nissan e.dams team home to a sixth placed finish.
The remaining Mahindra driver of Alexander Sims achieved a solid recovery drive, whilst the second Mercedes of Stoffel Vandoorne capitalised on his fanboost to take home eighth and the fastest lap.
Lucas di Grassi took home ninth, with Oliver Turvey putting in a strong performance for NIO 333, giving the team their first points finish in over a year.
Reigning champion Antonio Felix da Costa managed to recover to finish 11th after starting in 18th.
However, he was involved in a bizarre incident on the finish with Sebastien Buemi, who finished in 13th.
BMW I Andretti’s Jake Dennis was top placed rookie in 12th, with Norman Nato in 14th and Envision Virgin’s Nick Cassidy in 19th, after having his time deleted during qualifying for setting his fastest lap under the yellow flag.
The second DS Techeetah of Jean-Eric Vergne took home 15th place, ahead of Porsche’s Andre Lotterer who had to box under the first safety car.
Robin Frijns ended the day in 17th, with NIO 333’s Tom Blomqvist in 18th and the Dragon/Penske Autosport’s of Sergio Sette Camara and Nico Muller rounding out the finishers.
[motorsport_result id=’56851′]
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