Mortara Takes Championship Lead After Double Podium From Rokit Venturi In 2nd Diryiah E-Prix

We got a Mercedes 1-2 in Round 1 in Diriyah, but it was all about Rokit Venturi for Round 2, who took lead of both the Drivers and Constructors Championship after Edoardo Mortara took the win, with new teammate Lucas Di Grassi placing P3. But it wasn’t without some difficulty, as a late safety car caused by Alexander Sims’ shunt into the wall saw confusion for the drivers and a slow end to the race.

De Vries qualified on pole position after a stunning drive on Friday but contact with Jean-Éric Vergne and taking a late attack mode compromised his race. The other two previous podium sitters, Vandoorne and Dennis, qualified 12th, and 8th respectively. Jaguar’s unlucky start to the season continued, as both cars hit the wall in qualifying.

Sims went wide heading into the first corner as the second race got underway in Diriyah, with teammate Rowland managing to make up three places from 10th to 7th and Sam Bird dropping down to last after making contact in Turn 1.

It appeared António Félix Da Costa was struggling for pace as he was passed cleanly by 4 cars within the first 6 minutes, including rookie Oliver Askew. Robin Frijns was the first of the front runners to activate attack mode and he lost his place to Di Grassi behind.

With 30 minutes left, Wehrlein and Da Costa, who seemed to have found his rhythm, sailed past Askew who had a big slide coming up to Turn 14. The Portuguese driver was one of 5 to receive Fanboost in this race, the other 4 being his teammate Vergne, the two Mercedes EQ drivers and Giovinazzi.

Lap 15 saw the drivers behind De Vries all closing in, as Di Grassi, Frijns and Mortara activated attack mode in an attempt to make up positions. The Brazilian attempted to send it into the chicane as De Vries pushed him wide, but he came back on track and nearly pushed the Dutchman into the wall before taking the lead of the race. The move was under investigation later in the race, but no further action was necessary.

Mortara tried to take advantage of this fight by overtaking De Vries too but couldn’t quite make it stick. However, on the next lap, he managed to take P2, and a minute later P1, as he still had some attack mode left and overtook teammate Di Grassi for the lead.

With 18 minutes left to go, Nyck De Vries finally used his attack mode and dropped down to P4. 4 minutes later, Jean-Éric Vergne sent it down the inside of De Vries coming into the chicane, with the Mercedes EQ driver coming back at him as he was pushed off track. The contact between the two cars saw De Vries lose momentum, and he was passed by several drivers, dropping him down to P9. This move was also under investigation but once again, no further action was taken.

It was a Rokit Venturi 1-2 coming into the final 10 minutes of the race, but Frijns managed to overtake Di Grassi for second, with the Brazilian not putting up much of a fight.

Alexander Sims crashed at turn 6, causing a yellow flag, and the safety car was called out with just 8 minutes to go. Unfortunately for Vandoorne and Vergne, they had just activated their Fanboost as the Porsche Taycan came onto the track, and so their extra power unfortunately couldn’t be used.

Miscommunication between the stewards, drivers and teams saw many cars stop on track behind the safety car, as they attempted to navigate their way around not only the crane attempting to lift Sims’ Mahindra, but also debris from Askew’s Andretti, all going through the series of blind corners on the track. The cars appeared dangerously close to the crane as the car was being lifted, and many felt it was an error of judgement from the FIA to still have the cars on track whilst the Mahindra was being recovered.

After a certain point in the race, no extra time is added on after being under the safety car, and this was the case of Round 2 in Diriyah. It was decided that it would be brought back into the pits with just three corners to go, and the confusing ending to the E-Prix saw a double podium for Rokit Venturi, with Mortara taking the win, Lucas Di Grassi P3 and Robin Frijns slotting between them in P2. Stoffel Vandoorne took the fastest lap of the race.

This race is yet another example of poor communication and use of the safety car. It feels almost as if the FIA are placing ‘good racing,’ over driver safety, and the race almost certainly should’ve been red flagged. To have the cars creeping past Sims’ swinging Mahindra, because there’s not enough space on track is quite frankly not on. Vergne said after the race how there was no communication between him and his team and that he was ‘shocked to see how the end of the race was handled.’

Nevertheless, this race was a prime example of how quickly a Formula E race can change, with De Vries losing 5 positions just from contact with Vergne. Had his strategy been different, he may have been a double winner in Diriyah.

The next round will take place in Mexico on February 12th; we honestly couldn’t predict the results!