After 2 months off, Formula E has returned, with many teams wanting to make up for a poor start to their year. For one team though, they were able to do that to perfection, whilst we saw plenty of battles behind them!
Jaguar so nearly won the title last year, only for it to fall through their fingers. This meant they were one of the favourites coming into the season, yet it began with some disastrous results, especially for Evans. Today though, that all was made up for, as Jaguar dominated the race, having been blocked throughout qualifying, which hid their pace. It makes sense now why they were so angry going into the race. Evans was smart during the race, holding back and conserving energy, he also used attack modes differently to those around him, which allowed him to get to the front and pull away to win. Bird too came though brilliantly, helped by his extra energy. 5th is even better considering he got damage on the first lap!
Every year we seem to underestimate Envision Racing, but it is clear now that their pace isn’t a one off, and Frijns can once again fight for the title if it goes well for him. He wasn’t able to take pole, yet his race pace and energy conservation was probably one of the best in the field, other than Jaguar. In the battle with Vandoorne and others, he was calm and considered, as we often see from him. Cassidy also fought through well, to give the team a few points including the fastest lap.
The most confusing team right now seems to be Mercedes in some ways, their one lap pace is undeniable, yet in the race it often falls apart. Vandoorne was able to bring it through this time, however there are clear weaknesses there too. Stoffel pulled off some great moves in the battle with Frijns. For De Vries however, it went much worse, as despite a good start, he all of a sudden started dropping back, and ended up retiring, another curious twist in the tale of their season!
DS Techeetah in the early stages of the race were right in the fight with the leaders, and looked like they could win too. Then as the attack modes played out, they couldn’t move forwards, and didn’t have the pace to overtake when it mattered, but 4th and 6th is another solid step for them, especially given they had some very on edge moments.
Venturi was anonymous for most of the day, apart from when Mortara hit Rowland, which caused the big lap 1 pile up. In the end though, Mortara found his way towards the front, and got another great haul of points on a weekend where they didn’t have the pace to win. Di Grassi was held up on Lap 1, which I am sure he will want to thank his teammate for, and bearing that in mind 11th is a huge recovery, although we didn’t really see any of it, as there was so much action going on up front.
Porsche was even more anonymous than Mortara, as they just seemingly sat on the edge of the points all race long. They shouldn’t be disappointed in the pace they had, as they are still getting to grips with the tracks, and the progress year on year is clear to see. Who knows what Rowland could have done if he hadn’t of been taken out, yet my gut feeling is he wouldn’t have been able to stick with the front runners?
This was a race to show us whether Andretti would have the car to fight for the title, as another poor performance here, might well seal their fate for the season. Qualifying from Dennis gave hope of a return to the front of the pack, but he couldn’t convert it to points in the end. The pace just wasn’t there, and a miscalculation of laps left, meant he had a colossal amount of energy saving to do, which cost him any chance of points. Askew is adapting well to the new scenery, and to be close to Jake is promising to see. The bottom three teams couldn’t make any impression on the race, and being caught up in the lap 1 crash ended Guenther’s day early.
With it all to do again tomorrow, Jaguar will not want to wait for the action to begin again, as they are surely the team to beat. That being said, the gaps will likely close in, as the slower teams will have more to gain than the faster teams. Bearing that in mind, if today’s race was thoroughly entertaining, I have no idea what Race 2 will be!
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 