The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team secured vital points at ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race premiere in Indonesia: Stoffel Vandoorne finished the Jakarta E-Prix in fifth place while Nyck de Vries was forced to retire through no fault of his own.
- Stoffel set the fastest time in his qualifying group and moved through to the quarter-finals where he lost out to Mitch Evans. Stoffel started the E-Prix from seventh on the grid after Pascal Wehrlein was handed a penalty.
- Nyck set the fifth-fastest time in qualifying Group B and began the race from ninth place.
- Stoffel gained a position at an early stage and then set about catching up with the leading group to ultimately cross the finish line in fifth place, four seconds down on race winner Mitch Evans.
- Nyck was also fighting for points until just before the end of the race when he had a puncture after contact with André Lotterer (for which the Porsche driver received a five-second penalty) and had to retire his Silver Arrow 02.
- After an early safety car period, the race was extended by 1:30 minutes, and drivers posted 40 laps in total as a result.
- Stoffel (121 points) leads the Drivers’ World Championship by five points from Jean-Eric Vergne (116 points). Nyck (65 points) is in sixth place.
- The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team (186 points) head the Team Championship Standings after this ninth round of the season. DS Techeetah (170 points) are in second place.
- The next round of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will take place 2 July 2022 in Marrakech.
|
Driver |
FP1 |
FP2 |
Qualifying |
Race |
Standings |
|
#5 S. Vandoorne |
P16 1:09.213 21 Laps |
P10 1:08.526 16 Laps |
P8 (Quarter-Final) 1:09.268 |
P5 Grid: P7 FL: 1:09.819 |
P1 121 Points |
|
#17 N. de Vries |
P8 1:08.667 21 Laps |
P14 1:08.683 18 Laps |
P10 (Group B: P5) 1:09.078 |
DNF Grid: P9 FL: 1:10.034 |
P6 65 Points |
Stoffel Vandoorne:
“It wasn’t a perfect race for us today, but P5 kind of limited the damage. We started the E-Prix from P7 and the race didn’t always go the way we would have liked. I think our pace was basically solid, but unfortunately, I missed the Attack Mode activation zone once. I dropped back a bit as a result and lost the connection with the leading group. But for that, I could have been fighting for a place on the podium and then it would have been a very different race, but that’s just how it is. We must now learn from that. We made a great recovery, and the most important thing is to keep scoring points every weekend.”
Nyck de Vries:
“Unfortunately, that was a disappointing result. There was no real problem. In fact, I even think we were quite quick in the race, although I wasn’t entirely happy with the car’s balance. But still, we were well placed to finish sixth or seventh. Unfortunately, there were two situations that dropped me down the field. In the end, I decided to try an overtaking manoeuvre on André and he hit my left rear tyre, causing serious tyre damage, so there was no point in continuing. I had a lot of bad luck in this race, but that’s just how it is sometimes. It’s all part and parcel of racing, so we have to accept it and keep going. It was very hot in the car, but apart from that, this was an extremely successful event. The fans were fantastic and gave us a great welcome. Racing here was a real pleasure for all of us and we’re already looking forward to next year when it might perhaps be a bit cooler!”
Ian James, Team Principal:
“It has been a challenging day for us here in Jakarta. First of all: a phenomenal event in itself. It was great to finally be back here in Asia with the World Championship. The crowd has been awesome; it’s great to see so much enthusiasm for Formula E in a new location. From that perspective we enjoyed every single minute.
On the performance side, to be frank, the sessions today were challenging for us throughout. In Qualifying we didn’t capitalise on the performance that we’ve got in the car, resulting in the drivers lining up on the grid in P7 and P9.
Having said that, we knew that we’d got an opportunity to push forward in the race. It was clear from the start that the temperatures here would play a significant role. In that respect the race was generally well executed. Unfortunately, Nyck was on the receiving end of some bad luck which meant a puncture for him half-way through the race put him out of contention and we had to retire the car.
For Stoffel, a very well managed race – although a missed Attack Mode cost him a potential higher position and the opportunity to fight with the leading cars. But all in all we are coming away with some important points.
We definitely have things to take away from this event – positive and less positive – and we will ensure that we get back on form again for Marrakesh and beyond. Although we are still leading both championships, we need to ensure that we are consistently getting both cars into the points in the remaining races.”