DENNIS IS THE FORM MAN FOR A NEW FORMULA E GENERATION
Britain’s Jake Dennis became the first winner of a Gen3spec Formula E race when he trounced the opposition in a crushing display at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez.
The Andretti driver strolled to 7.8-second victory, a winning margin almost unheard of in Formula E.
The genesis of the victory came in qualifying when Dennis, with a damaged front wing, managed to make it through to the final duel with Mahindra’s Lucas di Grassi.
It was the Brazilian’s first pole for five and a half years in his first race with Mahindra after his summer switch from Venturi. But it came somewhat fortuitously as Dennis made several mistakes on his lap as he struggled with the distraction of his damaged car.
In fact, Dennis was furious that he was not allowed to change the front part of his car on safety grounds. But with cars having to enter parc ferme conditions there was no possibility of a change ahead of his semi-final against Jake Hughes and the final with di Grassi.
There was a messy start to the race when ABT Cupra driver
Robin Frijns rear-ended Norman Nato’s Nissan sending both in to retirement and Frijns to hospital with a broken wrist.
That safety car was followed by another early on to retrieve Sam Bird’s Jaguar that had broken a driveshaft.
Soon after the green flag flew, Dennis made his move on leader di Grassi at Turn 3 after the Mahindra got sideways.
Once in front Dennis made hay and was able to stretch a gap to di Grassi and a chasing mob comprising impressive Formula E rookie Jake Hughes, Dennis’s team-mate Andre Lotterer and Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein.
Dennis, though, had to contend with another safety car, this time to rescue Edoardo Mortara’s bent Maserati that he’d backed into the wall.
But any ‘yips’ for Dennis were banished as he immediately built up another buffer that was sufficient enough for him to take his second attack boost without losing the lead. He then waltzed to his third EPrix victory adding to previous successes at Valencia in 2021 and London ExCeL in ’21 and last year.
Di Grassi, who was energy-poorer than drivers around him, realised he had to get defensive to protect his position. But Wehrlein then cleared former team-mate Lotterer and Hughes, setting his sights on a back-to-back Mexico City win.
He was initially left frustrated but soon made a move on di Grassi as the attack mode phase played out. Any ambitions of catching Dennis though was merely a pipedream as the Andretti driver checked out and won at a canter.
Hughes lost fourth in the final stages when Lotterer put a bold move on the McLaren at the chicane.
Sebastien Buemi took sixth on his debut for the Envision team, while the second works Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa took seventh. Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS), Nick Cassidy (Envision) and reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne completed the top 10.
Results
Round 1 - 41 laps
1 Jake Dennis (Andretti) 58m25.974s; 2 Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) +7.816s; 3 Lucas di Grassi (Mahindra) +18.611s; 4 Andre Lotterer (Andretti) +19.161s; 5 Jake Hughes (McLaren) +20.289s; 6 Sebastien Buemi (Envision) +20.714s; 7 Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche) +21.051s; 8 Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS) +24.758s; 9 Nick Cassidy (Envision) +29.150s; 10 Stoffel Vandoorne (DS Penske) +29.662s. Pole: Di Grassi (Mahindra); Fastest lap: Dennis 1m14.195s (79.20mph). Championship positions (after 1/16 rounds): 1 Dennis 26; 2 Wehrlein 18; 3 Di Grassi 18; 4 Lotterer 12; 5 Hughes 10; 6 Buemi 8; 7 Da Costa 6; 8 Evans 4; 9 Cassidy 2; 10 Vandoorne 1.