The first weekend of the eighth season of Formula E saw the team Mercedes protagonist of real ups and downs in two Diriyah E-Prix: the German house, after obtaining a shotgun in the inaugural round of the world championship, he seemed in fact in the ideal conditions to be able to at least replicate the success with Nyck De Vries also in the second race scheduled in Saudi Arabia. The Dutch, reigning world champion, had in fact been the architect of a pole position conquered by only 5 thousandths of an advantage over Edoardo Mortara, then winner of the stage. In the latter, moreover, De Vries had the worst in a wheel-to-wheel duel with compatriot Robin Frijns, so much so that he slipped into tenth position behind your teammate Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian, himself the author of a colorless qualification, did not in fact go beyond the 7th place in the race, where the two Mercedes drivers still crossed the finish line in points area.
Despite having therefore concluded in the top 10 in both tests, the world ranking sees Mortara momentarily at the top of the drivers’ classification, with the success of the Swiss – and the 3rd place of Di Grassi – which allowed the Venturi team to also impose itself in top of the world team, all in anticipation of the third E-Prix of the season scheduled for February 12 in Mexico. Meanwhile, De Vries and Vandoorne commented on the outcome of the second race in Saudi Arabia, first explained by the Dutch as follows: “Overall, we weren’t fast enough today – he analyzed – also, we delayed the activation of the attack mode a bit, which may have been a factor that caused us to lose ground. Moreover, after the contact, I lost four or five positions, which was very heavy for my race. In the end, though, it was our fault, because I feel that we weren’t fast enough. This proved, once again, that things can always get worse, even when we were bringing home a positive weekend so far. The challenge is always very heated, and it’s easy to lose contact “.
A disappointment also shared by Vandoorne, who expressed his feelings about his performance as follows: “We started 12th on the grid, with qualifying not satisfying at all for me – he added – I was unable to optimally heat the car for the second heat, and this did not allow me to establish a valid time. However, I still think I drove a good race, with the 7th place finish and the fastest lap. Maybe we struggled to get to the pace we had on Friday, but overall it was a good performance. It was the best we could do under these circumstances, and we have limited the damage“.
#Vries #werent #fast #fault #FormulaPassionit