Diriyah E-Prix Race 2: Wehrlein secures the double in Saudi Arabia

Tag Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein secured the double after the German secured his second consecutive victory in Saudi Arabia, this weekend.

How the race unfolded…

It was a fairly even start from the entire field off the line, as the lights went out, but Jaguar’s Mitch Evans got the better start – from the dirty side of the grid – to snatch the race lead away from Neom McLaren’s Jake Hughes into the first corner.

By the end of the first lap, the top three saw Evans in the lead ahead of Hughes and McLaren’s Rene Rast.

ABT Cupra’s Kevin Van Der Linde – who occupied last place – was the first driver to activate attack mode, on lap four, with a two-minute boost. However, the South African was not able to make the most of his additional power and remained dead-last as after his two-minute allowance ran out.

By the end of the race, the ABT substitute – following Robin Frijns’s wrist injury in Mexico – remained at the back of the order in P20, only ahead of those who did not finish the session.

Of the front runners, Evans activated his attack mode on lap 10 with a three-minute boost, Hughes responded a lap later. However, Rast was able to make an overcut work as he took his attack mode at the end of lap 11 and managed to leap from Evans into the lead.

Although Hughes started on pole, a gap started to build between the McLaren driver and Evans and this forced Porsche’s race winner – yesterday – Pascal Wehrlein into action. Within two laps, the Porsche driver moved from P4 in the order up to P2. The German driver dispatched third from Hughes, into turn 18, on lap 12 and made a similar move on Evans, on lap 13, at the same corner.

At the end of lap 17, Wehrlein inherited race lead as Rast moved to the outside line, at turn 18, to activate his final two-minutes of attack mode. The Porsche driver soon peeled off the racing line to activate his final minute of attack mode at the end of lap 20. However, the German driver had established a big enough gap to peel through the attack mode sensors and return ahead of second-placed Rast.

Despite a start from P6 on the grid, Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis charged through the field becoming the race’s top driver in overtakes. By lap 25, the British driver found himself up into second place. As a result, the Andretti driver activated his first round of attack mode which incurred a one-minute boost, with three minutes remaining to activate later on.

The safety car was deployed very late on in the race, at the end of lap 27, as ABT Cupra’s Nico Muller was found in the barrier at turn 18. It was later found that Muller went in too deep at the braking zone and found himself on the run-off area. Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t keep his car out of the barrier.

On lap 31, the race was soon back underway. By the first corner, Wehrlein established a small gap between himself and Dennis, which left the Andretti driver under pressure from Bird behind him – in third. Despite the pressure, Dennis maintained his second-place.

Mahindra Racing’s Oliver Rowland was the next driver to see his race end prematurely with a suspected puncture, the Briton peeled into the pit lane to retire on lap 32. On the same lap, Bird and Dennis activated their attack modes – Dennis started his final three-minute bout while Bird took his first round.

In a bid to overtake Rast for second place – on lap 33 –  Bird broke late down into turn 18 but the British driver went in too deep and ended up in the run-off area. Fortunately, the Jaguar driver was able to keep it out of the barrier and maintain his position in P4, ahead of Hughes in fifth place.

Podium:

1. Pascal Wehrlein, Tag Heuer Porsche
2. Jake Dennis, Avalanche Andretti
3. Rene Rast, Neom McLaren

That’s it for the article; Diriyah E-Prix Race 2: Wehrlein secures the double in Saudi Arabia!

What was your favourite moment of the weekend? Let us know in the comments!

Read more Formula E here:

• Diriyah E-Prix: Sam Bird tops first practice
• Formula E Diriyah E-Prix Preview
• FE Mexico E-prix: Dennis secures first win of 2023
• NIO 333 take the covers off their Gen3 racer
• ABT Sportsline reveal Gen3 car as they return to Formula E
• Avalanche Andretti reveal Gen3 challenger

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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.