Stoffel Vandoorne booked P5 in the penultimate race of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Seoul. His teammate Nyck de Vries was forced to retire after an accident during the initial stages – taking the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championship fight to the last race of the season.
- Qualifying took place in wet conditions on Seoul’s new street circuit. Stoffel qualified fourth in his group for the duels only to be eliminated by Pascal Wehrlein in the quarter-finals. He started the penultimate race of the season from seventh on the grid.
- Nyck was in Group B for qualifying and came eighth. He was in 15th place for the start of the E-Prix.
- The race got under way on a track that was still wet, making conditions tricky, and was red-flagged just after the opening lap when a number of drivers crashed into one another.
- Seven cars were involved in the incident at Turn 21, including Nyck, whose race ended early as a result. Nyck was unharmed in the accident.
- Stoffel held his position on the restart behind the safety car and moved up one place shortly afterwards to take P6. He subsequently overtook Jean-Eric Vergne as the race progressed to cross the finish line behind the safety car in P5. As a result, he was able to score points for the 14th time in the 15th race of the season.
- Stoffel (195 points) leads the Drivers’ World Championship by 21 points from Mitch Evans (174 points). Nyck (106) is in ninth place.
- The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team (301 points) leads the Team Championship Standings after the 15th round of the season by 31 points ahead of Venturi Racing (270 points).
- The 16th and final round of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season will take place at the same venue in Seoul tomorrow, Sunday, 14 August 2022.
|
Driver |
FP1 |
FP2 |
Qualifying |
Race |
Standings |
|
#5 S. Vandoorne |
P1 1:22.000 17 Laps |
P16 1:22.129 15 Laps |
P7 (Quarter-Final) 1:35.401 |
P5 Grid: P7 FL: 1:25.863 |
P1 195 Points |
|
#17 N. de Vries |
P6 1:22.75 17 Laps |
P19 1:22.510 8 Laps |
P15 (Group B: P8) 1:31.704 |
DNF Grid: P15 FL: – |
P9 106 Points |
Stoffel Vandoorne:
“Today was really challenging in these tricky weather conditions. I think we as a team were perhaps not quite perfect, but still, we managed to stay out of trouble in the circumstances with all the incidents and score some vital points. Mitch won the race and kept the championship race open, but I think we just need to focus on ourselves, do a little bit better tomorrow and then see what happens.”
Nyck de Vries:
“This is definitely not how I had imagined the race day today. Unfortunately, my race was already over on the first lap. The conditions were very tricky with little grip and poor visibility before turns 20 and 21. Fortunately, the halo protected me in the accident. Everything happened like in slow motion. I‘m okay, but of course, that was the worst possible way to end my race. The most important thing is that everyone is okay. I must turn all my focus now to tomorrow so that we can conclude the season with a strong result for the team.”
Ian James, Team Principal:
“Even before taking off for Seoul, this venue promised to be an exciting one for all of us – especially at the end of what’s already been a thrilling season so far. In that sense it definitely didn’t disappoint.
From a team’s perspective though, today we made life more difficult for ourselves than maybe it needed to be. Especially during the qualifying session, we didn’t get things quite where we’d like them to be. From there it was difficult to get either Stoffel or Nyck up to the grid positions where we had aimed to start from. That being said, the race was set to mix things up a bit. We’ve seen the weather be particularly changeable today. Despite the forecast, it was still near impossible to call when the rain was going to hit.
The wet track brought with it potential for some chaos and that came to bear with a crash on lap 1 involving of a number of vehicles. Unfortunately, Nyck was also one of the victims. He was unsighted due to extremely poor visibility from the spray on the track and that contributed to him ending up in the barrier. The main thing in such an accident – especially when you have a competitor’s car sat on top of you – is that the safety systems (specifically the halo in this case) do their job, and I am very pleased to say that neither Nyck nor any of the other drivers that were involved were injured in any way. That is a testament to the work that the FIA and their suppliers do in making sure that these cars can be as safe as possible. Unfortunately, that meant it was the end to Nyck’s race today.
Stoffel fared better, he started in seventh position and raced a controlled race to finish in fifth – in extreme conditions. Solid points for him and the team… even if we had hoped for more.
The chance to clinch a (double) World Championship is going to have to wait until tomorrow. It’s never done until it’s done and the team, Stoffel and Nyck will be giving it their all to make sure we put ourselves in the best possible position.”
Round 16 – Seoul E-Prix
When to watch
The team is back on track for round 16 of the season of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship tomorrow, Sunday (start time 08:04 BST). Tune in at the following times to see the team in action:
|
Round 16 |
|
|
Session |
Time (in BST) |
|
Practice 3 |
01:30-02:00 |
|
Qualifying |
03:40-04:55 |
|
Race |
08:04-09:00 |
Where to watch
Don’t miss any of the action this weekend, and follow the team on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Or, head here to find out how to watch all sessions live in your region.