WEHRLEIN MADE TO WORK BUT TAKES DIRIYAH DOUBLE
Pascal Wehrlein staked an early claim for the 2023 FIA Formula E World championship with a dominant display in Riyadh last weekend.
The Porsche driver controlled proceedings in both races to take the early title lead. But he had to initially work for the spoils due to the Porsche’s relative lack of one-lap qualifying pace that meant he started the races from ninth and fifth respectively on the grid.
The superior traction and minimum speed attributes of the Porsche Gen3 package vanquished the opposition that mainly came from the Jaguarpowered cars of Sam Bird, Mitch Evans and Sebastien Buemi, as well as the McLaren squad of
Jake Hughes and Rene Rast.
It was Buemi who took his first pole position for almost four years when he topped the knock-out duel qualifying session in his Envision Racing-run Jaguar for the first round last Friday evening.
The Swiss, though, simply didn’t have the race pace and was overhauled by Bird early on. At the midway point of the race Wehrlein was seriously on the move, after he had earlier seen his path cleared by a first-corner shunt involving Oliver Rowland, Rene Rast, Evans and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Wehrlein surged to the front overtaking Bird at will and soon pulled out a race-winning gap. He had some company though because Jake Dennis in the Andretti-run Porsche applied pressure in the closing stages but to no avail.
Bird completed the podium ahead of Buemi, while Rast and Buemi’s Envision team-mate Nick Cassidy completed the top six.
A day later, Wehrlein reprised his heroics by again carving his way through the top order seemingly at will. By lap 17 of the 39-lap event, he slipstreamed and outbraked temporary leader Rast
At the start of the race sensational Formula E rookie Hughes had allowed fellow front-row starter Evans through after a slightly sluggish start. But Evans was deposed by Rast before Wehrlein cruised up behind them and despatched both.
Wehrlein then waltzed to another win, even managing a late-race safety car period that was deployed to salvage Nico Muller’s crashed ABT Cupra.
He didn’t have it all his way though as in a mirror of the previous race Jake Dennis came up from sixth on the grid to harry the former Sauber F1 driver and was just
1.5 seconds off the factory Porsche at the chequered flag.
Mexico City winner Dennis was satisfied with his brace of runner-up positions, while Rast secured McLaren’s first-ever Formula E podium in third.
An energy-rich Bird was just unable to grab a podium after a botched attack on Rast resulted in him briefly spearing off into an escape road.
Hughes took fifth but only just as he ran out of energy on the finishing line and was rear-ended by a displeased Evans who, in turn, was passed by an opportunist Buemi for sixth.
NIO 333’s Dan Ticktum took the final point after a stellar weekend in which the young Brit wowed with his one-lap pace but was left a little flat by the energy efficiency of his car over a race distance.
Results
When: January 27-28
Where: Diriyah Street Circuit, Riyadh – 39 laps:
Race 1: 1 Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche) 47m45.567s; 2 Jake Dennis (Andretti) +0.531s; 3 Sam Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) +3.526s; 4 Sebastien Buemi (Envision Racing) +6.048s; 5 Rene Rast (McLaren) +7.471s; 6 Nick Cassidy (Envision Racing) +7.614s; 7 Jean
Eric Vergne (DS Penske) +12.394s; 8 Jake Hughes (McLaren) +15.187s; 9 Andre Lotterer (Andretti) +15.563s; 10 Mitch Evans (Jaguar TCS Racing) +17.914s (+5s penalty for forcing another driver off track). Pole: Buemi. Fastest lap: Rast 1m10.117s (79.60mph)
Race 2 – 39 laps: 1 Wehrlein 50m40.304s; 2 Dennis +1.252s; 3 Rene Rast +4.554s; 4 Bird +4.851s; 5 Hughes +10.869s; 6 Buemi +10.947s; 7 Evans +11.088s; 8 Sacha Fenestraz (Nissan) +12.409s; 9 Edoardo Mortara (Maserati) +12.753s; 10 Dan Ticktum (NIO 333) +13.275s. Pole: Hughes. Fastest lap: Bird (Jaguar TCS Racing) 1m09.010s (80.9mph).
Championship positions (after 3/16 rounds): 1 Wehrlein 68pts; 2 Dennis 62; 3 Buemi 31; 4 Bird 28; 5 Hughes 27; 6 Rast 26.