While it is true that Mercedes will not continue for the Gen3 era of Formula E, the team continues to put the knife between its teeth at every race and Berlin was no exception.
In the German E-Prix, Nick De Vries and Stofel Vandoorne led the podium, with the reigning champion on top of the podium in the Teutonic capital. Mortara, Saturday’s winner, escorted De Vries, while Lucas Di Grassi finished fourth.
De Vries made the best pace of his car count and did not let Mortara take advantage of the two-second advantage with which he left the attack mode phase. The defending world champion took his first win of the year and climbs to sixth overall, although still far behind his teammate, who is almost twice his number of points.
Vergne, who had an outstanding day on Saturday, faded this Sunday to the point of finishing ninth and out of the fight. In fact, this bad result cost him second place overall.
Vandoorne, on the other hand, was always among the front runners, but this time he did not have enough pace to fight for the win. However, the result was enough to progress to the last step of the podium and add another 15 valuable points that give him a cushion of 12 over the now second, Edoardo Mortara.
Different Conditions
This Sunday’s race was markedly different from the opening day. For example, the direction of the track and the Attack Mode, which for the Sunday e-Prix was concentrated in a single eight-minute activation, while on Saturday there were two four-minute activations, significantly changed the strategy, so the race was somewhat less lively, and also less exciting.
Despite the modifications, the trend with respect to the Mercedes powertrains remained. Mortara looked like he would once again be the driver to set the pace on the German track by repeating pole position and strategy of activating the attack mode. However, his strategy did not give the expected result since, first, De Vries overtook him at the start and, then, when his attack mode ended he was second behind the Dutchman, much more plugged in than on Saturday, where he was practically out of the race.
Formula E returns next June 4 in Jakarta, Indonesia, the country that will host the electric single-seater series for the first time.
Written by I Jhonattan González