London E-Prix: Dennis becomes Season 9 Formula E world champion as Evans wins race
29th July 2023In the season finale double-header, Jaguar’s Mitch Evans secured the first victory of the London E-Prix as Avalanche Andretti’s Jake Dennis clinched the Formula E driver’s world title.
How the race unfolded…
It was a great start from the Envision racing duo of Nick Cassidy, who started in pole position, with Sebastien Buemi who slipped past Andretti’s championship contender, Jake Dennis, into the opening corner. After the first set of corners, Cassidy and Buemi settled into first and second as Dennis had to settle for third.
While drivers continued to work their way up the order, the top four remained unchanged after the first lap. NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum fell down the order from fifth to seventh as Jaguar’s Mitch Evans and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlien moved up to fifth and sixth, respectively.
On lap three, several drivers finally took their first set of attack modes such as DS Penske’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Nissan’s Norman Nato and Maserati’s Maximillian Gunther. This ignited a series of drivers to follow suit.
The yellow flag was soon brought out as Vandoorne made contact with Maserati’s Edorardo Mortara. Both drivers were able to continue on.
Further on down the circuit, ABT’s Robin Frijns, Mahindra’s Lucas Di Grassi and NIO 333’s Sergio Sette Camara were all involved in a collision at turn 19 which resulted in a temporary three-car car park. Di Grassi and Sette Camara continued to race but Frijns had returned to the circuit by lap eight, and retired from the race.
On lap nine of 36, Dennis attempted to activate his first round of attack mode but the Andretti driver failed to complete the loop which dropped him down the order. The Envision drivers quickly activated their extra energy shortly after which allowed Evans to inherit the race lead with Buemi and Cassidy in second and third.
four laps later, Dennis dropped down to fifth as contact with made between himself and Cassidy as the two raced towards turn three. After the contact, Dennis was forced to yield track position and settle for fifth place but the British driver was yet to take his first round of attack mode.
On lap 15, it was a disaster for Cassidy after he damaged his front wing when he tagged his teammate’s rear-right tyre. As the section of his Gen3 machinery rubbed against the Hankook tyres, it lodged itself underneath the Envision. Cassidy quickly returned to the pit lane to get his Gen3 repaired and quickly returned to the London circuit.
With debris out in the middle of the circuit and in a dangerous position, it meant Race Control was forced to deploy the safety car on lap 16. Two laps later, the Porsche safety car quickly returned to the pit lane and left Evans in charge as the pace-setter. On the final corner, Evans got the race back under racing conditions.
17 laps remained of the first round in London as Evans remained ahead of Buemi and McLaren’s Rene Rast who were second and third. At the same time, Dennis was yet to take his first allowance of attack mode.
On lap 21, Dennis attempted to take attack mode but failed to activate it for a second time. However, a lap later the Andretti driver managed to get it activated for his first six minutes of attack mode. He also went on to collect his final attack mode bout
Cassidy finally called it a day and retired from the race on lap 23 to join ABT’s Nico Muller and Frijns, DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne on the retirement list.
On lap 29, the Nissan of Sacha Fenestraz was found buried deep within the barrier of turn 16 as a result the safety car was deployed. Replays showed Fenestraz made contact with Ticktum which saw the Nissan Gen3 jump up alongside the sidepod of Ticktum’s NIO 333 before he crashed – heavily – into the barrier. Fortunately, Fenestraz was okay.
Three laps later, the red flag was deployed as the track marshals required more time to repair the barrier which Fenestraz crashed into.
After the red flag stop, the race finally got back underway and Evans quickly bolted under the rolling start, on the final corner to catch Buemi off guard. The decision had the desired result and Evans raced into turn one without a challenge.
On the first lap after the restart, both Evans and Buemi moved into the attack mode activation zone. Evans managed to take his bout of attack mode, return to the racing line and not lost track position. However, the same could not be said about
The red flag was redeployed as a car park had formed at turn 21, as the midfield re-entered the London ExCeL Centre. The car park was formed as a number of drivers made contact.
Buemi made contact with the side Nato as the two tried to go side-by-side into the penultimate corner, both drivers were dragged to the outside barrier. As the drivers behind did not expect such a situation, many were caught out and found themselves in their own part of the pile-up.
The red flag was brought to an end with three laps to go, with one additional lap set to be added at the end. The race was quickly restarted by a rolling start led by Evans who was ahead of Porsche’s Antonio Felix Da Costa and Dennis, in second and third respectively.
On the final lap, Da Costa was slapped with a three-minute time penalty for a technical infraction which dropped the Porsche driver down to the last of the running drivers. With Da Costa’s misfortunes, this promoted Dennis up to second when he only needed to finish third in the final laps, to secure the world title.
Podium:
- Mitch Evans, Jaguar
- Jake Dennis, Avalanche Andretti – SEASON NINE ABB FORMULA E DRIVERS WORLD CHAMPION
- Sebastien Buemi, Envision
That’s it for the article; London E-Prix: Dennis claims Formula E drivers championship as Evans wins!
Read more Formula E here:
- How Formula E fared in Monaco: Cassidy wins to lead championship
- German climate change group take responsibility for Formula E disruption
- Race recap: Da Costa secures inaugural win in Cape Town E-Prix
- Cape Town E-Prix: Mahindra and ABT Cupra withdraw due to safety concerns worries
- Cape Town E-Prix: Fenestraz secures inaugural Julius Baer Pole
- Hyderabad E-Prix: Penske wins dramatic inaugural race
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