Seoul E-Prix: Vandoorne secures 2021/22 Formula E title
14th August 2022Mercedes’ Stoffel Vandoorne has secured the 2021/22 ABB Formula E championship as he finished ahead of his title-rival, ROKiT Venturi, Mitch Evans.
How the race unfolded…
It was a good getaway from DS Techeetah’s Antonio Felix De Costa who covered off ROKiT Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara. However, carnage ensued into the second corner after the majority of the midfield drivers collided together. Fortunately, all of the drivers were able to continue on.
After the opening laps, Turvey and Oliver Rowland pitted. On the third lap, Mortara opted with the dummy move before he slipped down the inside line of Da Costa to snatch away the lead. As contact was made, Costa was slow out of the corner and this allowed Avalanche’s Jake Dennis to sneak into P2.
Envision’s Robin Frijns, in fifth place, was the first driver to activate his first bout of attack mode, with 36 minutes left on the clock. This was quickly followed Mercedes-EQ’s Nyck De Vries, in 10th.
One minute later, Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein pulled off the circuit – at turn four – to retire from the race after he suffered terminal mechanical damage when he made contact with De Vries. As a result of the contact, De Vries also retired from the race but this had no damaging affect on Mercedes’ constructors title hopes.
With 26 minutes left to go, ROKiT Venturi’s Lucas Di Grassi – on his 100th race – was forced to return to the pit lane for a front-right puncture. The Brazilian driver dropped down to 14th, from sixth, when he returned to the South Korean circuit.
On lap 14, the safety car was deployed as Nissan E-Dams’ Maximilian Gunther retired from the race down the back straight, between turns 19 and 20.
As it stood, with just over 16 minutes left on the clock, Vandoorne was on his way to secure the Formula E title, sat in fourth place while his championship rival, Evans, was back in eighth.
At the same time, Mercedes looked set to win their constructors title after Di Grassi’s visit to the pit lane put ROKiT out of contention for their respective championship even though Mortara led the race.
With 14 minutes left on the clock, the safety car returned to the pit lane and Mortara got the race back underway.
Da Costa almost secured a second-place finish as he attempted a move around the outside of Dennis, into the final corner with just over 10 minutes left. However, Da Costa squeezed Dennis into the corner and contact was made between the two drivers.
The DS driver was forced to correct a slide, after the contact, but he had to stop on track before he ended up in the barrier. This dropped the Portuguese driver down to last of the running drivers.
Due to the amount of time spent behind the safety car, six minutes and 45 seconds were to be added at the end of the mandatory 45-minute time limit.
As the race’s mandatory 45 minutes expired, Dennis was slapped with a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Da Costa.
Podium:
- Edoardo Mortara, ROKiT Venturi Racing
- Stoffel Vandoorne, Mercedes
- Jake Dennis, Avalanche
That’s it for the article: Seoul E-Prix: Vandoorne secures 2021/22 championship title! What have been your favourite moments of the Gen2 era? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula E here:
- Seoul E-Prix: Mitch Evans takes championship to last race
- 2022 Formula E South Korea E-Prix: Preview
- New York City E-Prix: Felix Da Costa secures win from lights-to-flag
- Formula E 2022 New York City: Stoffel Vandoorne tops first practice
- Formula E Mexico City E-Prix Qualifying: Pascal Wehrlein on pole position
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
