Thanks to an excellent decision to link the first and the second attack mode, Lucas di Grassi obtained the success in Race 2 in London, preventing Jake Dennis from an encore.
The Brazilian from team Venturi simply had to wait until everyone’s attack modes were exhausted to take the lead, then moved on to the attack to make sure Dennis was unable to catch up with him.
Dennis was able to keep the lead in the first corner and seemed to have a manageable advantage over di Grassi in the first 10 laps of the race.
With an attack mode activation plan different from that of race 1 – the pilots had three attack modes available each lasting four minutes – a different strategic variable was staged.
Di Grassi took advantage of the first shot on lap 10, while Dennis responded on the next lap. But once the first four minutes had passed, di Grassi took advantage of the second attack mode on lap 13 and took Dennis in the wake.
The home rider activated the second attack mode to close Grassi – who had taken the lead – and the Venturi rider returned the favor three laps later, once Dennis had finished activating.
By managing to defend the lead until di Grassi’s latest attack mode was activated, Dennis was told to expend some energy to create a gap on the Brazilian.
Dennis took the lead 9 tenths, but this proved to be the pinnacle of his margin with di Grassi who shortly afterwards came close again forcing the Brit to take the latest attack mode with an advantage of only 4 tenths.
This allowed di Grassi to regain the lead when Dennis took the widest trajectory at turn 16 to pass the area that grants the energy boost, but the driver Andretti was unable to attack and close the gap from the Brazilian, indeed, di Grassi took advantage of the opportunity to open the gap to more than a second despite the lower power.
Once Dennis’s attack mode period was over, di Grassi was able to further increase his lead and traveled relatively smoothly for the remainder of the race, while Dennis had to deal with a Nyck de Vries in full swing at the end.
De Vries struggled with Antonio Giovinazzi and Antonio Felix da Costa in the early stages, but the former was given a penalty for excess power, while da Costa slipped behind de Vries mid-race.
Jake Dennis, Andretti Motorsport, BMW iFE.21, Lucas di Grassi, Venturi Racing, Silver Arrow 02
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Stoffel Vandoorne managed to climb from 13th on the grid to fourth under the checkered flag while his main title rivals failed to shine in the second race. The Belgian of Mercedes can now count on a 36-point lead in the standings, as Mitch Evans’ Jaguar came to a halt in the closing laps while the New Zealand was fourth.
Neither Edoardo Mortara, twelfth, nor Jean-Eric Vergne, who retired, managed to score points, even if the latter is not mathematically out of the chase for the title as he is 57 points behind with a maximum of 58 points up for grabs. in the last two races.
Da Costa finished the race in fifth position, ahead of Sebastien Buemi and Robin Frijns, seventh, while Sam Bird got the eighth place in front of a Sergio Sette Camara who won the first points of the year for Dragon Penske with the ninth place.
Pascal Wehrlein completed the top 10, chased by Mortara at the finish line, but the Venturi driver was penalized for a contact with Maximilian Gunther.
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