London E-Prix 2021-22: Dennis and di Grassi Entertain, Vandoorne Sustains
(copyright FIA Formula E)
Race One
Jake Dennis loves the Excel Arena, but not for the same reasons as anyone who has ever been to the likes of Grand Designs Live; rather, Dennis is the undisputed master of indoor racing after a second win in as many meetings at the current venue of the London E-Prix. What is the word for someone who is a specialist at exhibition centres? An exhibitionist? Probably not, but Dennis certainly seems to have an affinity with the venue.
Dennis benefited in part from the revisions to the Excel circuit’s outdoor loop, which had been criticised a year ago due to the double hairpin inviting incident. This time around a chicane replaced the second of the two hairpins, which produced safer and cleaner racing, but also deprived chasing drivers of another overtaking opportunity.
Lucas di Grassi, who had been critical of the circuit changes, had further reason to dislike the layout after a qualifying session where he had his lap times deleted for impeding Mitch Evans’ Jaguar, a decision he felt had been reached unfairly and by stewards who had used video footage, but not the data they have access to, to make the decision. The demotion to the back of the grid, along with an in-race incident with Robin Frijns, left di Grassi fuming.
Those who wanted to overtake had to do so by increasingly adventurous means. Nick Cassidy, who started seventh, was one of the most daring, the Envision driver pulling off brilliant moves late-on in the race on Oliver Askew and then on Sergio Sette Camara, ultimately taking fourth place.
Sette Camara, having another of his occasional brilliant races with Dragon-Penske, was up to third with five minutes gone in the race, fearlessly diving down the inside of the sharp-elbowed Nyck de Vries at turn one. While the Penske powertrain is notoriously underpowered and outdated compared to much of the field, it still gives the Brazilian a chance to showcase his talents on days when the track suits both car and driver. Unseen by cameras, Sette Camara ran out of usable energy close to the end of the race in what he termed a “disaster” after qualifying and running at the front of the field on a track with few overtaking opportunities. The powertrain is less efficient than its rivals, and that led to a situation where both Sette Camara and teammate Antonio Giovinazzi were unable to finish the race.
The race started off dramatically, with Dennis getting a clean getaway from Vandoorne, who had made the most of qualifying where rivals Edoardo Mortara, Jean-Eric Vergne, and Mitch Evans were unable to. Mortara’s race was further hampered by a first-lap collision with Sam Bird which caused enough damage to the Swiss driver’s suspension that he was forced to pit. That was the end of any serious challenge for points he might have been planning, and may prove to be the end of his title challenge.
Dennis controlled the race from the front, in spite of the Andretti, running the BMW powertrain without factory support this season, being low on race pace compared to Dennis’s, and sometimes teammate Oliver Askew’s, qualifying performances this season. That mattered less at the altered Excel circuit, though. It meant that Dennis, as long as he lapped consistently, could hold off Vandoorne who was, in any case, focusing on the possibility of taking away a substantial championship lead, seeming unwilling to go for any low-percentage moves to take a win that was not needed.
The same applied to Vandoorne’s teammate Nyck de Vries, who was being chased down relentlessly by Cassidy in the closing laps of the race, the Envision seeming to have the ultimate pace, but not the occasion to get past. De Vries is the master of the aggressive defensive line, and saw off Cassidy’s challenge with at least one lurid move under braking, but also by successfully holding the inside line on every corner where Cassidy might have fancied his chances.
Race Two
(copyright FIA Formula E)
Dennis was looking, after qualifying, like a runaway favourite to repeat Saturday’s feat, on a home circuit at which he seemed to be dominating. Lucas di Grassi, who loves nothing more than a strategic win, had other ideas and made it through to win by more than two seconds for Venturi, his first win for a team he will depart at the end of the season for Mahindra.
Drivers all want to win, but of course there are more realistic goals for those for whom that is not an immediate prospect. Antonio Giovinazzi would have loved a victory in his debut season (and still has two more races in which to make it happen), but will have wanted just as badly to salvage something from a disastrous debut season in Formula E. The Italian made his way into the qualifying duels for the first time, then got into third on the grid with a Dragon Penske package that at least allows its drivers to express themselves over a single timed lap.
Race pace has always been the issue for the team, though, and the Penske powertrain, which gave inaccurate readings to Sergio Sette Camara yesterday and caused him to run out of usable energy, may have been at fault in Giovinazzi’s race on Sunday. Called in from third for a drive-through penalty for power overuse (the occasional tiny surges of torque that the powertrain sometimes gives over hard bumps), Giovinazzi retired from the race shortly afterwards, in a sad twist for the popular driver and his many fans.
Dennis got away well again from pole position, defending immediately from di Grassi, with the carnage happening further back as Oliver Rowland was speared up into the air after he was unsighted by Oliver Askew in midfield. There was a knock-on effect for other drivers in their immediate vicinity, though the delays and damage caused to some of the drivers meant that Stoffel Vandoorne, starting 13th and looking to score solid points for his championship lead, was able to proceed swiftly into the points-paying positions.
Giovinazzi, as has often been the case for his Dragon Penske teammate Sergio Sette Camara, was able to demonstrate early-race pace holding off the DS Techeetah of Antonio Felix da Costa in a battle that will do the former F1 driver’s confidence a world of good, regardless of how the effort proved ultimately fruitless.
After Giovinazzi pitted with half an hour remaining, the order was Dennis, leading but calculating with his team when the best time would be to take Attack mode, from di Grassi, Nyck de Vries’ Mercedes EQ, da Costa, title contender Mitch Evans, Sebastien Buemi, and Vandoorne. The race was starting to settle into a strategic battle after an early Safety Car deployment due to Jean-Eric Vergne, who had had an outside chance of winning the title, stopped with damage.
With 21 minutes left, an anxious Andretti team told Dennis to use the second of his mandated three Attack Mode activations, believing that any later would mean the tyres would be too worn for the extra power to be an advantage. After having been consequently overtaken by di Grassi, the Brazilian took his own Attack Mode activation and again fell to second, but his tyres and energy levels looked in better shape than that of the car he was chasing. With just under a quarter of an hour remaining, di Grassi looked like he was waiting for a gap to emerge.
The gap emerged when Dennis took his final Attack Mode with eight minutes and one lap remaining. Dennis may have liked to chase di Grassi back down, but he had to hold off the charging de Vries, who had more usable energy at his disposal.
With two minutes left, the final blow came for another title challenger. After Edoardo Mortara had spun, frustrated, in a midfield tussle following a difficult qualifying session, Mitch Evans coasted to a halt with a technical issue for his Jaguar. Di Grassi’s season now looks far more positive than it hitherto had, but for Evans, Mortara, and Vergne, a championship victory will, almost certainly, have to wait for another year. This is because of the relentless consistency and excellence of Vandoorne, who has made this season his own, and salvaged a superb fourth even from this difficult day at the office.
The top ten an hour after race two: Di Grassi, Dennis, de Vries, Vandoorne, da Costa, Buemi, Robin Frijns, Sam Bird, Sette Camara, and Wehrlein.