FE | In Berlin DS Penske achieved a good result

Jaguar and Porsche remain the two brands to beat for DS Automobiles, the only French manufacturer registered in the championship.

Always the same story. Almost. On Sunday, at the old Berlin-Tempelhof Airport, there was much debate and consideration on a track that has evolved, with the teams working hard overnight to refine their energy strategy for the second race of the weekend.

At the top of the grid, the surprise came from Andretti. After starting from the last rows the previous day, the cars powered by the Porsche Powertrain found themselves in the first two rows, alternating with the two Jaguars. Vandoorne [DS Penske]second when the lights went out the day before, initially found himself fifth after losing the duel against Norman Nato [Andretti] in the quarter-finals, but in the end he started eighth due to the cancellation of his qualifying lap, just ahead of teammate Vergne.

Compared to Saturday’s race, Sunday’s race consisted of only 38 laps and this meant that the energy strategy was slightly different. With the exception of Nick Cassidy [Jaguar], the entire second half of the grid entered Attack Mode just one lap after the traffic lights went out. As in Monaco two weeks ago, the cars were paired according to their colours: the two Jaguars, the Porsches [comprese le Andretti] and DS Penske occupied the top places in the rankings.

Curve 2, where Attack mode is activated, always involves a loss of three to five positions due to its shape. At the end of the first third of the race, the DS E-TENSE FE23 had consumed slightly less energy than the group average and had 2% more charge in their batteries. However, a few moments later the first safety car arrived after Maximilian Günther’s Maserati went off the track.

An unexpected race finale

At the restart, the battle between the four Porsche-engined cars, the two Jaguars and the two Nissans, which had rejoined the group, immediately heated up.

For their part, DS Penske drivers were playing a “placed” game, taking advantage of the good performance of their cars, but the contact between Vandorne and Sacha Fenestraz [Nissan] caused damage which forced the Belgian driver to return to the pits, which in Formula E unfortunately complicates any hope of scoring points. A second intervention by the Safety Car, this time to recover Fenestraz’s Nissan after a contact with Norman Nato, however brought Vandoorne back into play, closing the gap.

Entering the final third of the E-Prix, race directors added three laps to run to make up for time lost under the Safety Car. Most of the cars bore the marks of the numerous collisions that had occurred and, like the previous day, the final stage proved to be very close. Vergne had the opportunity to advance in the standings and increase his points haul by also taking advantage of the accidents of other cars in the final laps.

It was then that the French driver used his experience to protect himself from the attacks of riders who seemed to have nothing to lose, obtaining tenth place which is worth a point to take home. Formula E is undoubtedly a category where overtaking is very frequent, as is touch-and-go driving.

The next round of the Formula E world championship will take place in China, for the first time on the Shanghai circuit. Furthermore, it will once again be a double appointment with two races that will take place on both Saturday and Sunday.