Nyck De Vries took the victory in front of Edoardo Mortara for Sunday’s race in Berlin.
Taking the reverse layout of the airport track, De Vries managed the race perfectly from the get-go to take an emphatic win for himself and the Mercedes team.
The race was poised to be another strong showing from Pole sitter Edoardo Mortara, but by the first corner, it was Nyck de Vries who made the jump into the lead with Mortara falling back to second. De Vries was starting third but got a brilliant start to catch Mortara napping going into the first corner.
Robin Frijns had slipped to third followed by Andre Lotterer and Lucas Di Grassi by the end of the first lap. Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean Eric Vergne did make some contact on the first lap but kept seventh and eighth positions respectively.
With today’s race having only 1 attack mode to take for an 8-minute duration, choosing when to use it became a very important decision to make, and it was De Vries who became the first of the front runners to take attack mode falling to third when he re-joined. Da Costa and Vandoorne also followed in taking the attack mode with a big enough gap to Evans. Evans had been fighting with a struggling Vergne which led to the difference.
Frijns and Lotterer then took attack mode the following lap, but Frijns missed the activation point which would prove costly for the Envision driver. Lotterer came out in front of Vandoorne and immediately started to challenge Vergne who was still to take it.
With the other front runners shuffling around, Mortara found himself in the lead but at 33mins to go De Vries had caught and re-passed the Venturi to once again lead.
With Frijns still struggling from his mistake, Da Costa made the move for fourth with the Envision still not having taken attack mode after missing it.
Frijns continued to fall back as he was overtaken by Lotterer and then Vandoorne a few corners later. Da Costa got by Mortara with his attack mode engaged, and not long after Vandoorne and Lotterer made their moves on Di Grassi.
With 28 minutes to go Mortara took his attack mode to make his way back up the field although being 5 seconds back, he had it all to do.
Vandoorne made his way past Lotterer with 25 minutes to go to move into the podium positions
Di Grassi and Frijns had finally taken their attack modes and started to make up lost ground with Lotterer being first up. At the same time, Mortara made his way past Vandoorne.
Di Grassi then followed his teammate through a lap later after a dummy on the Belgian. Vandoorne was set to lose more though as Frijns also got past the Mercedes driver.
Mortara and Di Grassi made their way past Da Costa, the strategy of leaving the attack mode activation till later in the race was paying off as the two Venturis then moved their way through Da Costa to take the final spots on the podium. Mortara had a 1.4s gap to De Vries once the attack mode and been used up but it was a gap that would only be expanded upon as the race went on.
With Da Costa using fan boost, he was able to get passed Frijns with Vandoorne aiming to keep with the DS Techeetah by eventually following him through. Stoffel Vandoorne then made his move on Da Costa to take fourth place with fan boost still to be used.
With 2mins to go Vandoorne sent it down the inside of Di Grassi to get into the final podium spot.
Although Oliver Rowland had made good progress, he had Da Costa and Frijns tucked up right behind him. The drivers behind had more useable energy and made it count as they both get past the Mahindra.
That wasn’t to be the end of it though as Frijns went for a move on Da Costa but contact was made. The Envision came out ahead but it could be looked at.
De Vries would come across the line initially not seeing the chequered flag but was nonetheless delighted to take the win. Mortara had to settle for second, but crucial points were gained in the championship. Stoffel Vandoorne would complete a double Mercedes podium and keep the lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
Position | Driver |
1. | Nyck De Vries |
2. | Edoardo Mortara |
3. | Stoffel Vandoorne |
4. | Lucas Di Grassi |
5. | Robin Frijns |